One of the clear outcomes of changing consumer behaviors through the months of COVID-19 this year has been a gravity shift to online grocery shopping. Lockdowns drove many shoppers’ heightened demand for the online channel, but they also drove new, first-time online buyers. And those buyers have kept their nascent online habits.
Recent findings from Nielsen’s global e-commerce syndicated study tell us that 30% of surveyed shoppers claim to be new to e-commerce this year, with the other 70% saying they shopped online prior to the onset of the pandemic.
As a result, the pool of online buyers continues to grow at a pace much faster than in pre-COVID circumstances. E-commerce measures in the U.S. alone show that new online buyers of fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) have emerged across all age cohorts, even among those over the age of 65 who represent between 14%-24% of new buyers across merchants. Furthermore, repeat purchase rates among new e-commerce buyers in America have been strong. In fact, approximately 50%-60% of U.S. shoppers who made their first e-commerce purchase between March and October this year have already made a repeat purchase within the online channel.
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