Latest Research: Vaccines May Cure ‘Pandenomic’ Slump And Fill Stores Again — By 2022

COVID Vaccine

The latest installment in PYMNTS’ ‘Pandenomics’ study series is Mapping Digital-First Consumers’ Return to the Physical World, the “Why Digital-First Behaviors Are Here to Stay” edition. It explores correlations between COVID vaccines and the consumers who will (or won’t) take them.

Findings suggest, among other things, that 10 months of endlessly streaming movies and TV shows about fantastical disease outbreaks that look eerily like COVID-19’s early months has not made Americans cheerier about stores, stadiums or breathing the air in general.

Surveying nearly 2,300 U.S. consumers to gauge how vaccines are (or aren’t) making consumers crave in-store shopping versus digital-first commerce, PYMNTS researchers looked at plans to return to pre-COVID shopping routines and how digital is immunizing against more disruption.

What we found is a shopper conflicted, yet resilient, as answers beget new questions. “PYMNTS’ research shows that roughly three out of four consumers who have shifted to shopping online since the pandemic began have no intention of such a return. Consumers, after all, have already grown accustomed to the convenience of shopping and ordering online.”

What this all means for brick-and-mortar operators is the big question as 2021 gets underway.

A Dose Of Shopper Confusion Along With Vaccines

To take the vaccine or not is a question many Americans are mulling, leading to the usual social media war of words, and a measure of confusion along with all of those immunizations.

“Consumers are more willing to get vaccinated now than in the past, but almost half are still either against or lukewarm about the idea. Our research shows that 51 percent of all consumers now say they are ‘very’ or ‘extremely’ likely to get vaccinated,” per Mapping Digital-First Consumers’ Return to the Physical World. “This is more than the 45 percent who said they were on Nov. 19 and the 40 percent who said so on Nov. 12, but still leaves 49 percent of the population that is only ‘somewhat, ‘slightly’ or ‘not at all’ interested in getting vaccinated.”

More wary consumers cite concerns about side effects (57 percent), while 53 percent would rather wait, “and 27 percent say they are worried that the vaccine might contain unhealthy ingredients. These round out the three most common reasons that some consumers are hesitant to get vaccinated. Other consumers, who simply doubt that the vaccine will work, say they prefer to rely on their own immune systems.” Some even fear vaccines are infectious.

As it pertains to the great digital migration of 2020, Mapping Digital-First Consumers’ Return to the Physical World finds that 51 percent of consumers who are likely to get vaccinated have shifted to shopping for retail items online, and 75 percent plan to keep shopping for retail items online even after they are vaccinated and the pandemic is no longer impacting their lives. PYMNTS further found that 75 percent of the 27 percent of consumers who have shifted to ordering food online and are “very” or “extremely” likely to get vaccinated plan to keep ordering food online in the future. Consumers who have shifted to buying their groceries online are the most likely to retain their digital-first shopping habits, however. Twenty-one percent of those who are likely to get vaccinated have shifted to buying their groceries online, and 77 percent plan to keep doing so even after the physical world reopens.”

Mark The Date: January 12, 2022 

While we know that shopping in stores, from grocery to electronics, was more robust than anyone imagined during the dark days of spring 2020, the digital shift is now calling the shots.

Finding that 51 percent of consumers who plan to get vaccinated have shifted to shopping for some things online — and with 75 percent of them intending to continue doing so even after they’re vaccinated and no longer fear contagion — digital is commerce’s new alpha.

Per this latest Pandenomics report, foot traffic of the past is exactly that, so further adaptation is required by the remaining base of retail establishments.

“This means providing mobile-optimized websites, mobile order-ahead features and curbside pickup options, to cite a few examples. Our research shows that 41 percent of consumers are shopping online via mobile more than they did before the pandemic began, 39 percent are using mobile order-ahead options more often to order food and 29 percent are ordering more through aggregators than they did before the pandemic began.”

While it’s clear that the worst prognostications about retail stores are not playing out, the change is upon them. It seems only endurance and smarts will outlast the COVID episode.

“The average consumer believes that locations in general will reopen around Jan. 12, 2022,” per the study. “This serves as yet another reminder that while vaccination may go a long way toward helping consumers attain peace of mind, a long time will pass before consumers feel comfortable enough to participate in the physical world the way they once did.”

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