Retail lockdown and the increased reliance on online retail has triggered a significant movement in how customers plan to shop in future.

Research from O2 in partnership with Retail Economics found that 44% of shoppers believe Covid-19 is likely to lead to long-term changes in their shopping habits – with 13% strongly agreeing with this statement.

During the crisis, 34% of shoppers moved both essential and non-essential spend online, and nearly half (47%) of shoppers say they would shop more online going forward as a result of the pandemic.

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During the pandemic so far, 45% of shoppers said they had purchased an item online that they had previously only ever bought in store.

This shift indicates the importance for retailers in having robust online operations, be it through social media and marketing or product availability.

Today, digital is responsible for 47% of shopper awareness of non-food retail products, despite online accounting for only 20% of overall sales.

Nearly half (49%) of shoppers said they are now spending more time researching potential retail purchases online than they were before the pandemic – a number that jumps to 63% and 61% among shoppers aged 16-24 and 25-34 respectively.

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Overall, online channels accounted for 61.2% of the average shopper’s research into a potential purchase, with a retailer’s own website leading the way in terms of research at 16.7%, followed by online marketplaces accounting for 14.8% of shopper research.

This reliance on online retail continues right through to the point of purchase for many shoppers, with 24% saying they have bought an item online while standing in store and 36.5% of shoppers saying they have used their mobile device to read product reviews or price-check online while shopping in a physical store.

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As a result of this level of research, digital now influences 57.1% of all non-food purchases with online marketplaces acting as the single most influential channel at 18.7%, followed by a retailer’s own website at 15.6%.

Customer desire to use online channels to inform themselves on potential purchases continues through to the final mile – 44% said that they would be more likely to purchase from a retailer if they could track delivery of a product to their home or a collection point.

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O2 head of business sales Rob Sandford said: “As a technology partner to the industry, we wanted to find out what the tectonic shifts in how people engage with each other over the last decade – on smartphones, tablets, watches even – mean for us all as customers, retailers and business leaders.

“The lockdown and the associated changes to the way we buy are important, of course, but they’ve accentuated these shifts more than redirected them.”