The quip give the people what they want aptly describes global shopper behavior as new research finds that the right digital features smartly deployed are winning worldwide.
As we find in The 2022 Global Digital Shopping Index, a PYMNTS and Cybersource collaboration and the latest edition in this multiyear research project, merchants who walk the digital talk and align with consumer desires are pulling well ahead of those with less considered strategies.
Satisfaction and loyalty are byproducts of experience, according to the new data, and getting the feature mix right by region and retail category are proving decisive, as is awareness.
Buy now, pay later (BNPL) is a prime example. As more merchants respond to consumer wishes by adding this option, research reveals an awareness gap that needs to be solved.
Per the study, “44% of the consumers in the six nations we studied are aware that the merchants from which they made their most recent purchases accepted BNPL payments, for example, while 57% of the merchants provide at least one such option.”
A 13-percentage-point spread between BNPL availability at checkout and consumer awareness of the option indicates that many retailers still have work to do around communicating the presence of in-demand shopping and payment features — ideally before the journey starts.
Regional variance is apparent. For example, nearly 6 in 10 Brazilian consumers are aware of BNPL and prefer shopping where it’s offered — which is only in 41% of local merchants. In the U.S., conversely, 40% of consumers know about BNPL and 55% of merchants offer it.
From this, the study concludes that “Brazilian consumers are roughly 50% more likely than U.S. consumers to realize that BNPL options are available. U.S. merchants therefore appear to be either overinvesting in BNPL options, or — more likely — they are not implementing BNPL options in a way that makes it apparent to their customers that such options are available.”
PYMNTS finds a similar situation with voice-enabled commerce.
Looking at Brazil, for example, 76% of its merchants offer voice-enabled shopping options, but only 33% of its consumers use them. This contrasts sharply with the U.S., where 54% of merchants offer voice-enabled purchasing options and 43% of their shoppers use them.
