Walmart, Target could lose holiday customers to Amazon

Dive Brief:

• More than three-quarters of consumers plan to buy goods from Walmart and/or Amazon this holiday season, a Coresight Research report surveying 1,784 respondents found​. Eighty-eight percent of Amazon Prime members plan to buy on Amazon, compared to about 65.4% of non-Prime members who also expect to make purchases with the company, according to the survey emailed to Retail Dive. 
• Nearly 52% of consumers said they’re switching from Walmart to Amazon, followed by 31.8% who are switching from Target, 23.3% switching from Best Buy and 20.1% switching from Kohl’s, per the report. (Respondents were allowed to select multiple retailers). 
• The top reason survey respondents gave for shopping in stores was browsing to get gift ideas (44.4%). This was followed by 43.2% that like to see and test products before buying them, and 37.6% that said they enjoy shopping in stores. Meanwhile, 67.6% of respondents said they plan to make purchases both online and in-store.

Dive Insight:

Coresight’s survey findings echo previous research indicating that consumers will continue shopping in stores. A 2019 Shopkick survey found that 55% of Gen Z shoppers will do most of their shopping in-store, and 54% of Boomers will do the same.

For brick-and-mortar retailers, the results present a mixed bag. On the one hand, Amazon could take a substantial share of consumers away from large American retailers like Target and Walmart. On the other hand, the majority of shoppers expect to shop in-store. It’s also worth noting that Walmart still has a fighting chance against Amazon; the Coresight survey results show that 78.9% of shoppers expect to buy gifts at Walmart compared to 78.6% who plan to shop at Amazon.  

What’s clear from Coresight’s survey is that consumers most care about price, product quality, promotions and product availability. The survey indicated that 59.5% of respondents said lowest prices were an important factor in choosing retailers for holiday shopping, followed by 46.9% who said the quality of products, 45.1% who said special offers and 43% of good availability of products they want to purchase. At the bottom of the list were factors like buy online, pick up in-store (BOPIS), exclusive product selection and rapid delivery.

Though fast delivery and specialty products may not be as important to consumers as product availability and price, brick-and-mortar retailers may take note of factors driving consumers to shop online. Of the top three reasons why shoppers are heading online, 44.5% of Coresight respondents said they want to avoid holiday crowds, followed by 44.2% who said online shopping saved them the effort of shopping in-store and 39.3% who said it saved them time.