The IT Nerd

Salesforce’s 2019 Q1 Shopping Index Reports is out and it sheds light on new trends and sales opportunities for consumers and retailers. The report shows regional data and global insights about consumers’ online shopping habits collected from the online shopping behaviour of 500-million consumers.

In looking across the past nine quarters of shopper clicks, taps, and purchases, Q1 2019 was the first time in recent memory that the story of digital shopping wasn’t dominated by mobile. While mobile continues to be a key driver of commerce growth and innovation, Q1 data tracked exciting new shopper behaviors across visit duration, artificial intelligence (AI), athletic apparel and beyond.

Key Canadian data includes:

The Impact of AI is Undeniable – AI (not mobile) drives spending:

• In Q1, artificial intelligence proved it’s not just a buzzword – it’s having a major influence on revenue.
• Shoppers who acted upon AI powered product recommendations averaged 26% higher average order values (AOV) compared to shoppers who didn’t engage with them.

Active apparel on the cusp of becoming a premium category:

• Active apparel was the best-performing vertical in Q1, with sales growth up 18%
• Consumers are more willing to pay a premium for trendy, high-quality athletic clothing, and as the category becomes more desirable, retailers are steadily applying higher price points — and shoppers are willing to pay.

Canadian Shopping Stats

• In Q1, Canadian digital commerce grew 18% year over year, seeing the third most digital growth globally.
• 39% of Canadian digital shoppers in Q1 placed an order using a mobile device, slightly above the global average of 34%.
• Merchandise discount rate hit a two year low at 25%.
• While product assortment growth for Canadian retailers remains healthy at 14%, the growth number has been consistently weakening since 2018 Q2, when product growth was 19%.

Traffic stagnated & visits were shorter but sales rose. Canadians are spending more on their smartphones:

• Traffic only grew 2% in Q1, but shopper spend increased 10%. That means shoppers’ visits are less frequent, but more productive.
• Spending on mobile devices still rules – 39% of all online transactions occur on a mobile smartphone (compared to 4% on computers, 7% on tablets).
• Placing orders on a desktop or laptop computer have dropped 12% since 2017, where mobile device purchases are up by 14% in the same time frame.
• Although the majority of online orders occur on a mobile device, the per-visit average amount of time spent on the site by shoppers, in minutes, is the lowest of all devices at 4 minutes. This means retailers have an increasingly short window of time to win shoppers’ attention.

Online searches are driving shoppers to sites:

• Use of site search increased from 9% to 12% of all visits since 2017.
• Revenue contribution from site has climbed to 26% (from 25%), indicating a need for brands and retailers to fine-tune their “searchandizing” and advertising strategies by incorporating AI customer solutions.

To download the entire report, please click here. [Warning: PDF]

This entry was posted on May 4, 2019 at 8:39 am and is filed under Commentary with tags Salesforce. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.