Minding The Digital Gap: What UK Merchants Can Do To Boost Digital Sales

Recent developments have many around the world cautiously hopeful that 2021 will be very different from 2020, that COVID-19 vaccines will finally reverse the pandemic’s course and that life will get return to some semblance of normality.

If and when this comes to pass, however, it is safe to say that not all facets of daily life will simply revert back to a pre-pandemic reality. The pandemic has been a powerful catalyst for the adoption of digital technology in how people work, socialize and, perhaps most significantly, shop. PYMNTS’ research has consistently shown that most consumers are unlikely to shed the digital habits they have adopted when the pandemic subsides, not just because public health concerns will persist, but because many have discovered — and value — new, digitally assisted ways to shop.

This digital transformation is already well-documented in the commerce space, but it varies considerably among geographies. The United Kingdom offers a case in point. PYMNTS’ latest research shows that the shift toward digital shopping channels has been particularly strong in the U.K., a circumstance that almost certainly relates to the pandemic’s severity in the nation. Data shows that 46 percent of U.K. consumers now prefer making their purchases online, and the majority of them want digital-native experiences. They want to use their connected devices to shop and have products delivered without setting foot in stores. A smaller but growing share prefer cross-channel commerce that allows them to shop online and pick up products in stores using services like “click and collect.”

PYMNTS’ ambitious Global Digital Shopping Index series examines the digital shift in four key markets around the world — the United States, Australia, the U.K. and Brazil — and assesses what this shift portends for merchants. Our latest study is based on a survey of more than 2,000 consumers and 500 merchants in the U.K., and it focuses on how consumers’ shopping preferences and behaviors “across the pond” have shifted during the past year. Here are some of the other takeaways from our research.

U.K. consumers are keenly interested in digital-first features that can make the shopping journey more efficient, informed and economical.

Digital-first features — those that enable consumers to accomplish substantial portions of the shopping journey using services like mobile order-ahead and cardless payments — are uniquely compelling to U.K. consumers. Thirty-five percent of them are “very” or “extremely” interested in employing these features, greater than the shares of consumers who say the same in the U.S. and Australia. This interest extends to the specific digital-first features U.K. consumers currently use or would be interested in using. The most popular features include those that allow consumers to use their smartphones to check product availability (21 percent report using this feature regularly) and to make touchless payments or scan barcodes in stores (approximately 20 percent regularly use such features).

Merchants overestimate the degree to which they are meeting consumers’ demands for digital features.

Many U.K. merchants say they offer wide-ranging digital features, yet rarely do more than half of consumers say such features are available to them. Seventy-one percent of merchants say they offer click and collect, for example, but just 54 percent of consumers say they have access to such options. Wider gaps exist for other popular features, such as inventory checking capabilities, as 69 percent of merchants say they offer them, but only 35 percent of consumers say the feature is available.

U.K. consumers want better buy online, pickup in store (BOPIS) options.

Cross-channel shopping journeys — offered via services like click and collect — are employed by a significant share of U.K. consumers, but they score considerably lower in our Satisfaction Index than they do in Australia and the U.S. The U.K. has also experienced relatively low growth in cross-channel shopping, which has surged in other markets. This indicates that there is significant unmet demand for more satisfying and efficient cross-channel experiences.

These findings just scratch the surface of our study, which also features a Consumer Satisfaction Index, merchant innovation priorities and many other topics. To get the full story, download the report.