Over half of shoppers use Amazon as first destination for ecommerce.
Amazon continues to grow as an ecommerce powerhouse, according to BloomReach Inc.’s State of Amazon 2016 report. In the survey of 2,000 U.S. consumers, 55% went to Amazon first over search engines and other retailers.
The study’s data compares September of 2015 and 2016, showing that Amazon’s usage increased by 11% since last year. While 44% of consumers considered Amazon a first destination for product search in 2015, that number has now risen to 55%.
As ecommerce is predicted to grow by 13.6% this holiday shopping season, Amazon’s dominance is a challenge to major retailers.
Even among shoppers who might not choose Amazon first, the vast majority use it to comparison shop. For example, 9 in 10 shoppers still check Amazon after finding the product they want on another site.
Another significant finding in the survey shows the ever increasing role of smartphones in ecommerce. Seventy–six percent of consumers reported shopping on their phones, and 90% reported purchasing products on their phones.
Because purchases on mobile devices have grown to 30% of all U.S. ecommerce, BloomReach further investigated smartphone use. Their findings closely mirrored general consumer behavior, with 50% of consumers starting on Amazon, 34% on a search engine and 16% on a retailer site.
What makes Amazon so attractive to consumers? The top reasons for using Amazon involve consumers’ overall satisfaction with the site experience. Many consumers feel Amazon provides superior search and product–filtering capabilities, allowing customers to easily find the product they’re looking for as well as browse related items.
A staggering 94% of customers plan to use Amazon for their 2016 holiday shopping. With the bulk of the holiday shopping season just around the corner, the State of Amazon report comes at a pressing time for retailers.
