Tracking consumer behavior in e-commerce

Peak Season is here. The online shopper share has further evolved and grown over the past months. But what are the differences between the four countries that we measure? How do Heavy Online Shoppers influence the whole online shopper base? Also, with a world that still experiences a pandemic, we see how staying at home drives shoppers to shopping online versus visiting a physical store. But what else drives consumers into the online shopping field?

This blog is part of a series around Peak Season. Where other blogs look ahead and discuss expectations, the c… Read more

This article is part of the AfterPay Insights 'Peak Season 2021' series. Click here for the series. 

Black Week is here! What can we expect during the peak of Peak ‘21? Our survey data, now covering interviews with more than 105.000 Dutch, German, Norwegian and British consumers, indicates that we can expect the concept of Black Friday to attract at least twice as many consumers as Cyber Monday. Shopper inflow to Black Friday/Cyber Monday is expected to be at least twice as high as the outflow, resulting… Read more

Peak Season shopping is all about scoring the best deals. But which other aspects play a role in consumers’ shopping behavior when it comes to merchant choice? And which of those aspects are most successful in swaying consumers to give up their loyalty to one merchant – and go for another?  

Our latest data from surveys with Dutch, German, Norwegian and British consumers, indicates that the most frequent online shoppers are also the least loyal to the online retailers they buy from. As a result, these consumers are also the most likely for merchants to encoun… Read more

Disclaimer: our analytics have focused online shopping in general. The inspiration- and research stages of the purchase journey are heavily dependent on the specific product categories. Our aim has instead been to understand cultural differences between countries.

Peak season is here, hot and happening now. This time of the year is the busiest in online and offline purchases. Bustling around the internet channels and shopping streets, all sorts of consumers are eager to get their shopping done across the different categories. Learning about the customer jou… Read more

In this second part of a general Peak Season forecast, we look at the product categories that consumers in the Netherlands, Germany, Norway and the United Kingdom aim to shop at during Black Friday and Cyber Monday, the biggest sales events this Peak Season. Which categories are expected to have the highest share of shoppers? And which categories can expect the highest uplift in shoppers, compared to online shoppers ‘normal behavior’?

Our survey results indicate that a significantly large share of consumers intends to shop Media/Electronics during Black Frid… Read more

In this first part of AfterPay Insights’ general Peak Season forecast, we look at the expected size of Peak’s biggest sales events (St. Nicholas, Halloween, Singles’ Day, Black Friday and Cyber Monday) in the Netherlands, Germany, Norway and the United Kingdom. Which sales events are most successful in converting consumers to actually making a purchase? Which events attract most newcomers? And who are they?

Our end of September survey results collected among Dutch, German, Norwegian and British consumers indicates that the awareness of the Peak… Read more

Peak Season 2021 is rapidly approaching. All during Peak, AfterPay Insights is here to support you with in-depth insights into how consumers plan to shop. Our Peak Season series contains e-commerce forecasts for Halloween, Singles’ Day, Black Friday, Cyber Monday and Christmas as well as overall updates of e-commerce developments along the way. And we have now added British consumers to our research, meaning we are able to publish market specific prognoses for the Netherlands, Germany, Norway and the United Kingdom from here on out.

This blo… Read more


AfterPay Insights’ monthly forecast is back with this September outlook for e-commerce in the Netherlands, Germany and Norway. September marks the start of the post-summer period and Peak Season slowly comes into view. AfterPay Insight set out to map Dutch, German and Norwegian consumers’ shopping intentions during this period of transition. Do they intend to increase or decrease their online shopping in September? And which categories can we expect to grow or decline? Keep reading to find out.

Post-summer e-commerce growth picks up early … Read more

Written by Insights Team.

Tags:

• Findings week 36
• Germany
• Norway
• The Netherlands

This article if part of a three-part series 'The State of Online Fashion in 2021'.

Fashion is the biggest product category in e-commerce. Its shoppers buy far more than in any other product category. And as a result, Fashion’s growth sets the pace of e-commerce and often holds up overall development. But it is, due to its selective nature, also highly vulnerable. And the impact of seasonality leaves Fashion all the more exposed. Add to that a global pandemic and the vulnerability of Fashion’s immensely impo… Read more

This article is Part I of a three-part series 'The State of Online Fashion in 2021'. 

Fashion is the biggest product category in e-commerce. Its shoppers buy far more than in any other product category. And as a result, Fashion’s growth sets the pace of e-commerce and often holds up overall development. But it is, due to its selective nature, also highly vulnerable. And the impact of seasonality leaves Fashion all the more exposed. Add to that a global pandemic and the vulnerability of Fashion’s imm… Read more

This article is Part I of a three-part series 'The State of Online Fashion in 2021'.

Fashion is the biggest product category in e-commerce. Its shoppers buy far more than in any other product category. And as a result, Fashion’s growth sets the pace of e-commerce and often holds up overall development. But it is, due to its selective nature, also highly vulnerable. And the impact of seasonality leaves Fashion all the more exposed. Add to that a global pandemic and the vulnerability of Fashion’s imme… Read more

AfterPay Insights’ monthly forecasts are back with this August outlook for e-commerce in the Netherlands, Germany and Norway. Do Dutch, German and Norwegian consumers intend to increase or decrease their online shopping in August? And which categories can we expect to grow or decline?

Our results show that consumers in all three countries intend to buy overall at a similar level in August as they did in July. At the same time, consumers intend to decrease online purchases, shifting some of their purchases from online channels to brick-and-mor… Read more

In (e)commerce, the ‘green trend’ is growing. Consumers are increasingly aware of environmental issues and the role of consumption and e-commerce within that space. And in a bid to successfully address increasing demands for sustainability from their consumers, online retailers have been pondering for some time now corporate social responsibility and eco-friendly approaches. But how environmentally minded are consumers really? And of shipping and packaging, two aspects that are known to have a direct impact on the environment, which do they find most importa… Read more

In this week’s blog we publish the online purchase volumes for June, and we see that volumes decline. We saw a similar decline in online purchase volumes in June of 2020, although the period preceding June 2020 (a peak in online purchases, a result of the ‘first wave’ and subsequent lockdowns) looks slightly different than in 2021.

When we compare June 2020 to June 2021, we see that online purchase volumes are at the same level, except for Germany where June volumes are higher this year. But as noted, online volumes in the spring of 2020 were boosted signific… Read more

In this week’s blog we examine consumers’ demands and expectations of the future of e-commerce. In our survey we asked consumers about their expectations of the likelihood of eight futuristic scenarios developing in the next five years. Both the level of expectation of a scenario coming true as well as the personal benefit that the respective scenario has for consumers are taken into account in the survey. 

The latest survey results indicate that consumers’ expectations of some scenarios actually taking place within the next five years are hi… Read more