Consumers Now Want Digital in Everything, Everywhere, All at Once, Study Finds

Tech layoffs are running rampant. With inveterate titans like Meta, Google and Microsoft laying off thousands of workers, many are beginning to wonder whether digital growth and consumers’ appetite for digital is starting to cool now that pandemic restrictions are a thing of the past.

The truth is that more consumers are using digital tools in more areas of life than ever, showing that the demand for digital transactions is poised to grow for the foreseeable future. Our research finds that consumers are using digital tools 15% more than last year, with some of the most significant digital growth seen in their use of aggregators, apps and platforms to travel, connect and manage their homes.

The “ConnectedEconomy Monthly Report: The Evolving Digital Daily Edition” provides an overview of the development of the digital economy. We surveyed a census-balanced panel of 4,058 consumers between Feb. 1 and Feb. 6 to find out how consumers’ use of digital tools continues to grow in not one but nearly every aspect of their lives, both in daily and monthly routines. This report details some key areas of digital growth we have witnessed in the past year and how that growth drives more digital transactions across the ConnectedEconomy.

Key findings from our research include the following:

• On average, 47% of consumers participated across 70 digital activities we track — the highest level registered in our 15-month series. This participation means that more consumers are using the internet to engage in digital activities than at the same time last year when, on average, 41% of consumers participated in those same digital activities.

• Consumers added two new digital activities to their daily routine and four new activities on average to their monthly routine in the past year. The average consumer engages in 28 of the tracked digital activities monthly — up from 23 one year prior.

• Millennials and bridge millennials have been the driving force behind this digital growth. Millennials engage in 42 digital activities each month, with 12 of those activities performed daily.

• On average, 39% of consumers engaged in digital activities that involved online payments, up 33% from a year ago. The average consumer now performs more than 11 different types of digital transactions per month.

These are only a few of the trends we uncovered in the latest round of our ongoing research series. The March edition details the most prominent ways consumers’ use of digital has changed year over year and how this spike in digital activities is creating new avenues for digital transactions. Download the report to learn more about how consumers are integrating digital activities into their monthly and daily routines.