iTianxia.com: Looking at online shopping consumption outside Taobao from Alipay data (Part 1)

Text/Sun Jixia, Data Analyst of Tianxia Online Business

Without consumers, transactions cannot be established. For merchants, data about consumers is crucial. In the past, obtaining a consumer report required a long and thorough investigation. However, with the continuous development of e-commerce, the amount of data has continued to increase, and various data products serving merchants have emerged. The way to obtain consumer data has become more convenient and the cost is lower.

Among them, Alipay data is the biggest gold mine of all data. First, Alipay data is based on real consumption data, or data generated by each real transaction, which is more reliable than other consumer survey data; second, Alipay data not only includes Taobao, but also has a wider user group, which can be said to include all aspects of e-commerce in all fields. Its rich data is unmatched by any other company.

Therefore, "World Online Merchants Manager" and World Online Merchants Data Center have teamed up with Alipay Data Compass to start with Taobao merchant data and bring real Alipay Taobao consumer online shopping data reports to readers.

It should be noted that these data samples come from e-commerce websites supported by Alipay in 2012 other than Taobao, and have extremely high reference value.

Demographic characteristics of online shoppers

1. Age distribution of online shopping consumers: young people are the main force of online shopping

On Taowai e-commerce sites, online shoppers under the age of 30 account for more than 60%, and online shoppers over the age of 40 account for about 10%. It can be seen that current online shoppers are generally young.

2. Geographical distribution of online shopping consumers: Online shopping is becoming more prevalent in third- and fourth-tier cities

Currently, consumers of Taobao e-commerce websites are mainly distributed in first- and second-tier cities, accounting for 67.9%. According to the annual statement of Alipay, the number of online payment users in fourth-tier cities increased by 64% in 2012, and the amount of online payments increased by 68%, both exceeding first- and second-tier cities. Online shopping has gradually spread from developed regions to less developed regions, and the development speed of small cities should not be underestimated.

Guangdong is the province with the largest number of consumers on Taobao e-commerce websites, and Shanghai, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, and Beijing are also among the top five. According to CNNIC data, the absolute number of Internet users in Shanghai ranked 13th in the country in 2012. Combining Alipay data, it can be seen that Shanghai's online shopping penetration rate is very high. The top five provinces account for more than 50% of online shopping consumers, and the top ten provinces account for about 70% of online shopping consumers, which shows that the regional concentration of online shopping consumers is relatively high.

Behavioral characteristics of online shopping consumers

1. Distribution of online shopping age: More than 40% of consumers have online shopping age of less than 2 years

More than 40% of consumers on Taobao e-commerce websites have a shopping experience of less than 2 years. Among them, the proportion of new consumers in 2012, that is, consumers with a shopping experience of less than 1 year, reached 23.4%, indicating a large number of new consumers.

2. Purchase frequency: Most consumers only shop online once a month

70% of consumers on Taobao e-commerce websites shop online only once a month, and less than 15% shop online more than three times a month. For e-commerce companies, increasing consumers' online shopping activity is an important issue.

3. Online shopping time distribution: Consumers are more enthusiastic about online shopping on weekdays

Consumers are more enthusiastic about online shopping on weekdays, and the number of online shoppers decreases significantly on weekends. During weekends or holidays, consumers can arrange their time more freely, and the shopping scene may shift to offline. On weekdays, consumers do not have much time to go out shopping, so they are more inclined to choose convenient and fast online shopping.

Consumers' online shopping time is consistent with their work and rest time. The shopping time is mainly concentrated in the daytime working hours and at home at night. The shopping enthusiasm during the daytime working hours is higher than that at home after get off work at night. The shopping enthusiasm during the commute and meal time is slightly lower. Merchants can adjust their strategies according to the distribution of online shopping time to better meet consumers' online shopping needs.

4. Average order value distribution: More than 70% of online shoppers spend less than 200 yuan

The proportion of consumers with an average order value of more than 1,000 yuan on Taobao's e-commerce website reached 9%, but more than 70% of consumers' online shopping average order value was less than 200 yuan. It can be seen that most consumers currently tend to buy cheap items when shopping online.

5. Shopping preferences: Clothing and accessories are everyone’s favorite

Regardless of gender, the top two categories that consumers like to buy are clothing and accessories. Household items are the third most popular category for women and the fifth for men, which shows that women like to buy household items more than men. 3C digital products are the fifth most popular category for women and the fourth for men, which shows that men like to buy digital products more than women.

The top two shopping preferences for each age group are clothing and accessories, but the top five shopping preferences will change as consumers age. For example, household goods are the fifth category preferred by consumers under 24 years old, and from the age of 25, household goods rise to the third place; for consumers aged 30 to 39, maternal and child products are in the top five, which reflects that most of the online shoppers choose to marry and have children later. Consumers aged 40 to 49 pay more attention to sports categories, and sports are in the top five shopping preferences for this age group. Consumers over 60 are keen to buy food online, and food ranks among their top five shopping preferences. Online food shopping provides convenience for the elderly who are not as mobile as young people.

via: i.wshang.com