NEW DATA: The Four Shopper Personas Driving The Digital Shift

It has been 11 weeks since California became the first U.S. state to declare a state-wide lockdown to slow the spread of COVID-19.

By late May, however, 36.1 percent of U.S. consumers were beginning to warm up to the idea of leaving their homes and resuming their pre-pandemic routines.

There are still 63.9 percent of consumers who are opting to stay indoors, though, preferring to work and shop online for fear of risking contagion.

In The Great Reopening: Shifting Preferences edition, PYMNTS surveyed 2,064 U.S. consumers to understand why some consumers are eager to go back out into the world while others are committed to staying inside, working and shopping online from the safety of their homes.

Our research identified four unique consumer persona types, each of which tends to be driven by different factors for wanting to either stay at home, return to their pre-pandemic activities or resume those activities online using digital shopping options. These include the following:

Social shifters: Consumers who have gone online to make retail purchases, but are most likely to return to physical stores and engage in activities outside their homes

Safety shifters: Consumers who have embraced digital channels to buy groceries and other products and are more concerned about contracting the virus than other consumers

Convenience shifters: Consumers who put a premium on speed and convenience and are choosing merchants based on their digital offerings

Office shifters: Consumers who have shifted to working from home and want to go back to being outdoors and working in office environments

These four persona types have different reasons for wanting to perform various activities online or in person. Safety shifters are the most likely to plan to keep avoiding brick-and-mortar stores after the
pandemic is over, for example. Our research shows that 76.5 percent plan to shop in physical stores either somewhat or just as little as they do now, compared to 71.9 percent of social shifters and 68.1 percent of office shifters who plan to do the same.

So, which digital technologies do these various persona types plan on using to help them shop and pay, whether at home or in stores, going forward?

The Great Reopening: Shifting Preferences edition explores the answers to this question and many more.

To learn more about how different types of consumers plan on using digital features to shop and pay after states have fully reopened, download the report.