JDA survey reveals e-commerce has trumped Black Friday’s appeal

The convenience and proliferation of year-round e-commerce sales and discounting is causing consumers to place much less emphasis on traditional Black Friday sales, according to the second annual JDA Consumer Survey.

Of more than 1,000 U.S. consumers surveyed, 73% say they prefer to do their holiday shopping outside of the holiday season during e-commerce sales such as Amazon Prime Day. Forty-seven percent of respondents plan to skip Black Friday or Cyber Monday altogether this year.

Additionally, among the respondents who shopped primarily in-store for Black Friday deals in 2015, 34% are changing their behavior, reporting that this year they plan to shop equally online and in-store (20%), or even primarily online (31%).

“Consumers continue to be less influenced by the Black Friday holiday deals and are expecting retailers to provide them with more personalized options throughout the year,” said Jim Prewitt, vice president of retail industry strategy at JDA Software. “Amazon Prime Day was a hit this summer, it’s interesting to see how much of an impact it had on our survey respondents and their holiday shopping plans. Its popularity will cause many retailers to not only revisit their holiday sales strategy but how they compete throughout the year.”

Home delivery and shipping
● One in four consumers will not shop anywhere that does not offer free shipping.
● Throughout the year, more than two-thirds of respondents have spent more than they had planned to reach the free shipping threshold.
● 56% of consumers say cost is the most important factor they consider when placing an online home delivery order.
● 41% of consumers who have experienced a problem with an online home delivery from a retailer in the past 12 months said the issue was that their items were delivered later than the stated delivery date.
● When home delivery issues occur, the blame is more often placed on the retailer or e-commerce site, as opposed to the shipping company (according to 55% of respondents).

BOPIS / BORIS
● 46% of consumers used buy online, pick up in store (BOPIS) options in the last 12 months; a 33% increase from the prior 12-month period.
● Among consumers who used a BOPIS option over the last year, 60% have not experienced a recent issue with the service (a 15% improvement from last year).
● While only 20% of survey respondents have utilized a buy online, return in store (BORIS) service in the last 12 months, 67% said they would prefer to return an online purchase to a store.

Black Friday and holidays
● In 2015, 43% of survey respondents shopped for Black Friday or Cyber Monday deals.
● This year, 53% say they plan to shop for Black Friday/Cyber Monday deals.
● Despite having experienced an issue with an online order, 74% of respondents said they’d be at least ‘fairly likely’ to shop at that retailer again. However, that %age drops to 56.6% when asked if they’d shop with that same retailer during peak shopping times, like Black Friday.

Other
● For more than half of consumers (57%), price is the top factor they consider when purchasing directly from a manufacturer.
● More than half of consumers note price as the top factor to consider when purchasing directly from the manufacturer.

The survey reached 1,076 US-based consumers, 18 years and older, via a third-party provider to determine the findings of JDA‘s 2016 Consumer Survey. Among those surveyed, 53% were female and median income was recorded between $50,000 and $74,999.