UPS reveals results of Pulse of the Online Shopper Study

AS MORE shoppers in Asia buy online, their rising expectations amidst a fiercely competitive retailer landscape is driving increased demand for free shipping, expedited deliveries, and customer-centric return policies to be offered as the standard, according to the UPS Pulse of the Online Shopper™ Study.

Now on its sixth year, the research commissioned by UPS revealed enduring constants as well as emerging trends that are changing consumer behavior and preferences across China, Hong Kong and Japan, as well as the United States, Canada, Mexico, Europe and Brazil. The results have been categorized into three areas — Constants, Movers and Emergers.

“As retailers in the Philippines look toward global markets, they can draw valuable insights from this study to fulfill the dynamic online shopping experience for consumers and their future shopping demands,” said Chris Buono, UPS Philippines managing director. “Philippine retailers can tap on rising trends such as the emergence of mobile commerce and the rise of marketplaces for growth, while offering more flexible delivery and returns options. UPS works closely with retailers to offer global consumers greater choices, control and convenience with services such as My Choice™ and UPS Access Point™.

Notably, only 57% of shoppers in Asia are satisfied with the online shopping experience, the lowest percentage compared to other regions surveyed, and an improvement of only 11-percentage points since 2015 (when it was 46%), demonstrating the slow pace of change in addressing customer satisfaction.

Other areas of the retail experience that remain important year over year and influence purchase behavior include the importance of free, fast shipping, as well as free and easy return policies. Tellingly, Asia online shoppers enjoyed free shipping, on average, for 85% of their orders, illustrating the competitive advantage that free shipping gives to retailers that offer it.

Unsurprisingly, nearly two-thirds of respondents in Asia indicated that free shipping is an important factor in the checkout process, with 46% of shoppers adding items to their cart to qualify for it. What’s more, about half of Asia online shoppers have abandoned a cart due to no delivery date being given or delivery time being too long, with the average delivery wait leading to cart abandonment being 11 days.

Purchases becoming the norm as 77% of shoppers have placed orders on their phones (the highest percentage globally), up from 55% in 2015. By way of comparison, only 48% of American smartphone users made online purchases on their device.