Consumers 51% More Engaged in Video Streaming, Social Media Browsing Than Shopping Online

woman with smartphone and laptop

When benchmarking the progress of the world’s digital transformation, one of the ways PYMNTS categorizes online activities is by those that are “transactional” activities and those that are “engagement” activities.

Transactional activities are those that are only about making a purchase, such as shopping and paying bills. Engagement activities are those that are more often about fun, such as streaming videos and hanging out with friends on social networks.

Mobile banking and online banking are the two transactional activities in which the greatest shares of consumers participate, with 43% and 41% respectively, according to “Benchmarking The World’s Digital Transformation,” a PYMNTS and Stripe collaboration.

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Video streaming and social media browsing are the two engagement activities in which the greatest shares of consumers participate, with 51% and 45% respectively.

Greater shares of consumers participate in engagement activities. Consumers are more digitally engaged than their online shopping activity might suggest, PYMNTS found. The Engagement Index Score is 30.8, while the Transactional Index Score is only 22.4.

In addition to video streaming and social media browsing, more than 40% of consumers engage in communicating via app, livestreaming and music streaming. Those are the five most common engagement activities.

The five least common engagement activities included in the report are using a home security app or site, smart home features, automated chores, mental health app or site and dating app or site. Twenty percent or less of consumers engage in those specific activities.

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Embedding payments and commerce into the “have fun” activities that consumers have the most history with and use regularly — streaming movies and music and livestreaming — is one of the digital economy’s greatest sources of untapped potential.