What and where do American consumers buy online?
Consumers in the United States can and do buy all kinds of products from a variety of retail platforms and established online marketplaces, such as Amazon.com, eBay.com, and Walmart.com. Other retailers seemed to have gained popularity and higher consumer awareness. Shoppers expressed positive opinions on wide variety of brands such as Fetch, Etsy, and Poshmark.Some types of products, however, are more frequently purchased online than others: for example, over a third of American shoppers bought clothing online more often than offline. Another three in ten preferred their shoe purchases to be done online than off. Major reasons why U.S. shoppers enjoy ordering from online stores include the ease of access to the internet, the convenience of having items delivered to their doorstep, the frequently cheaper prices, and the greater product range found across the internet.
Online returns tend to go hand in hand with online shopping and have increased in importance with e-commerce becoming a norm. Nearly four in ten shoppers in the U.S. reported that they would very likely stop buying from brands if they got rid of their option for free returns. Most American consumers were online mildly concerned about the effect of free returns on the environment.