Online shopping isn't merely convenient—it's more fun

There is no denying digital is changing the face of holiday shopping. Digital experiences now dominate a customer’s decision to purchase, according to Digital Dopamine, a global report that explores the latest digital behavior, psychology and expectations around technology and online shopping. Even in the US, the majority of purchases are influenced by digital, despite being transacted over the traditional counter. Fresh after two of the world’s biggest online shopping events, CyberMonday in the US and Singles Day in China, we can quickly look back in order to look forward at what will happen for the rest of the holiday shopping season.

On Black Friday this year, Razorfish Hong Kong’s Head of Strategy Seton Vermaak, shared his insight with Bloomberg TV.  He noted of digital, "It's changed the way holiday shopping has been done globally, these digital initiatives. Before we used to trawl the streets looking for our gifts and enjoy that experience. People are now enjoying the online experience and are spending a lot of time preparing for the holiday season by shopping online as our recent research has shown."

Bloomberg host, Rishaad Salamat gifted Razorfish the line of the season on Friday when he said holiday shopping had transitioned "from window shopping to Windows shopping". Touché.

Meanwhile, in this hemisphere, 82 per cent of Chinese internet users wish they could do all their shopping online, so there is no denying marketers need to optimize and get their houses in order or they’re missing out. After all, Chinese New Year is just around the corner.

So what is driving this shift?

Put simply, our recent consumer research shows online shopping is more exciting than instore shopping. We get more excited waiting for online purchases to arrive, than when we buy in store. A very interesting stat for retailers as we enter the last three weeks of Christmas.

This shift towards delayed gratification is a retail game-changer. We now know ecommerce is more rewarding than the instant quick fix of traditional retail therapy.  It’s a flip from the generally accepted belief consumers want to be immediately satiated. Organizations that are only just starting to think about the value of ecommerce enablement to their businesses cannot ignore this change in consumer shopping behavior.

Digital experiences now dominate a customers’ decision to purchase and transform businesses. If a brand’s digital experience isn’t optimized, that business is likely to be in trouble heading into 2015. Those who haven’t planned a useful, engaging digital experience for this season should be getting their house in order for Chinese New Year.

Even for those who already have digital solutions in play, optimisation is key and delivers return on investment. A great example of this is Uniqlo’s Singles Day m-commerce success. While the average brand in China transacted about 43 per cent of sales via mobile on Singles Day, Uniqlo optimised its new Tmall store for mobile and delivered m-commerce performance over 10 per cent higher than the average brand. 

Anne Davis is SVP and head of multinational clients at Razorfish