The E-commerce Revolution: How to Spot Changes in Consumer Behavior

E-commerce is the activity of selling and buying goods and services on the Internet using online services and special applications. The e-commerce market, it turns out, began to emerge in the 1960s! However, the first purchase on Internet was made only in 1994, when a recently released music album was sold as a product. Nowadays, e-commerce is everywhere, and it affects buyer behaviors. Let’s see how customers have been changed by over three decades of e-commerce.

The Habits of E-Commerce Buyers

The growth of e-commerce marketplaces not only changes the composition and shares of players in the online sales market. It also transforms the behavior of buyers rather significantly. 

Indeed, marketplaces offer customers a convenient product search system. It uses detailed filters, as well as keywords associated with the name or description of the product by the buyer. Accustomed to convenient search, buyers want to see similar systems on all online stores. They are ready to abandon a marketplace if there is no filter system on the site or there are difficulties in finding goods.

A key feature of marketplaces is comparing several products from the same supplier or similar products from different suppliers. This way, a buyer can look at the characteristics, prices, and reviews and see which of the products is better. All these comparisons can be made on one platform. Some marketplaces have advanced comparison systems. Some of them even offer the option to search for products that have images similar to the photo of the product in question.

The habit of comparing and contrasting products and their parameters using one site has grown into the habit of comparing products using several sites. That helps buyers in choosing the most advantageous product option, but it makes them more difficult to retain.

E-commerce is not an industry; e-commerce is a tactic.

Tobias Lutke, Shopify CEO

E-Commerce and Delivery

Consumers associate e-commerce marketplaces with convenience and quick delivery. You can pick up the goods at many marketplace centers or at a convenient location using courier delivery. In November 2024, the average delivery time was less than 4 days. Slow delivery contributes to cart abandonment. Customers want their goods delivered quickly.

The short delivery time and the guarantee of receiving the goods in the office of a large company lead to a high level of trust. These conditions improve the customer’s willingness to place an order on the marketplace and even to overpay rather than shop at a small, unknown online store. Fast delivery is becoming a key aspect for many buyers, and the opportunity itself is a real competitive advantage for both marketplaces and online stores.

In most cases, marketplaces provide the buyer with the opportunity to try out the product. They can open the packaging, inspect the product, and even try on clothes, shoes, and accessories before payment. In this regard, many buyers are no longer ready to pay for a mystery package on the websites of traditional online stores.

The Importance of Reviews

Marketplaces and classifieds contain reviews and ratings of products. Only buyers who have ordered the product can add reviews. That — at least partially — improves the authenticity of reviews. It also inspires confidence among buyers. Consumers have grown accustomed to the abundance of reviews on marketplaces, the rating system and ratings from real buyers. They are also used to photos of goods taken by other buyers, and they refuse to purchase products from sites that lack genuine reviews.

Also, the audience of online stores and marketplaces is sensitive to negative reviews. Their presence significantly reduces the client’s willingness to make a purchase. Because a potential buyer can easily switch between products that are functionally similar, the supplier has to deal with a lack of consumer loyalty to the brand or manufacturer.

The Importance of the Interface

Marketplaces offer an unusual interface when compared to previously created online stores. That includes the ability to put goods in the cart and select only some of them when placing an order. Thus, goods in the cart do not mean that the clients are ready to buy them. They only demonstrate some interest.

Large e-commerce marketplaces can develop services and invest in various tests during the creation of the interface. As a rule, such Internet giants provide customers with a convenient interface. Having gotten used to it, consumers are not ready to use inconvenient websites and quickly leave them. This trend has taken place before. However, with the growing popularity and convenience of marketplaces, buyers prefer to order products of a certain brand on an e-commerce site rather than on the manufacturer's own website.

Consumer Behavior

• The desire to find ways to save money is rapidly developing among consumers. As a result, purchases become more deliberate.
• A large selection of products and the ability to choose create a pattern in consumer behavior that includes a prolonged search for the best option and a comparison of all possible alternatives to the product. Many buyers carefully study reviews. The time taken from the moment of the first contact with the product to the moment of purchase increases, and the conversion rate decreases.
• Discounts and sales have turned from a rare phenomenon into a constant practice. On the one hand, that has led to a low susceptibility of consumers to promotions. On the other hand, it resulted in the confidence that the product will definitely be available at a lower price; you just have to wait. Consumers are increasingly ready to wait for a sale, which, in their opinion, will inevitably come.
• There is a decrease in loyalty to many companies and brands. Priority is given to the price/quality ratio, not the brand of the product.
• According to research results, consumers began to lose faith in the fact that brands care about their experiences and problems. That has led to a decrease in their willingness to communicate with the brand.
• A large portion of e-commerce marketplace purchases are made using a mobile device. That is why it is so important for a marketplace to have a mobile app.

In Conclusion

Changes in the behavior of e-commerce consumers in recent years are important for business owners working in this field. Despite the transformation of consumers, it is obvious that the number of buyers will grow in the near future. So suppliers should not abandon the development of their own online stores and work with marketplaces. As for marketers, they need to think about new ways of communicating with their buyers.