Digital Spending During Covid by Generation
It’s no surprise to anyone that online shopping has become one of the most prominent shopping methods in recent years. Online shopping makes it so easy to get the items you want without even having to leave your home. Whereas in years past you would have to walk or drive down to a store to get what you wanted, now you can simply go to online retailers like Amazon and order whatever you want with the simple click of a button. This style of shopping has already been increasing in prominence for many years now, but if there were one event that skyrocketed people’s use of online shopping, then it would have to be the Covid-19 pandemic. Since so many people weren’t allowed to go outside and shop as they used to, the only option for many was to do all of their shopping online.
To find out how much people’s online shopping had increased at the start of the pandemic, a study was conducted that split up respondents based on the generation they belonged to. Conducted in May 2022 with 1,199 respondents, an overall increase in online spending was seen across every generation. The greatest increase was seen from Gen Z, with 65 percent of the respondents claiming that their online spending has increased since the Covid Pandemic started. In contrast, the generation with the lowest increase in online spending was the Baby Boomer generation, with only 47 percent of the respondents stating that they have been doing more of their shopping online. Both Millennials and Gen X also saw higher online shopping percentages close to those seen for Gen Z, but neither of them quite matched the percentage.
The disparity between generations could be attributed to a difference in the way that members of each generation prefer to shop, as an older generation like Baby Boomers may wish to stick to more traditional methods of shopping even when faced with a pandemic. On the other hand, Millennials and Gen Z were likely more accustomed to online shopping before the pandemic, which explains why these generations saw higher percentages of increased online shopping. Even though Gen Z saw the highest increase in online shopping, every generation shared the common result of a drastic increase in digital spending.
Thanks to the study conducted, it painted a picture of just how much e-commerce sales would soar following the pandemic. We can see that the overall increase in online shopping early in the pandemic certainly pointed towards an increase in e-commerce sales throughout the rest of the year, as the amount made in e-commerce sales increased from $571.2 billion in 2019 to $815.4 billion in 2020. Although 6 to 10 percent of each generation’s respondents claimed to have decreased the amount of online shopping that they do, that percentage is still massively overshadowed by the amount of people who shopped more online than they ever had before.
Even though the pandemic has slowed down and life is closer to how it was before, online shopping is only going to continue to grow. Our old methods of shopping may have come back, but there are now so many people who prefer the new way to shop for whatever they need. As the digital landscape continues to grow and become more robust than ever, younger generations like Gen Z and future generations are only going to utilize online shopping more than ever before.
