Majority of Consumers Still Prefer Online Shopping in Spite of High Street Retail Revival

Monday, July 6, 2020 - 15:39 by Sarah Collinson

Brits may be able to visit bricks and mortar stores now that lockdown measures have been relaxed in most of the UK, but a study from ChannelAdvisor found that just over two-thirds of people are still far more comfortable with carrying out safe shopping online than heading to the high street.

Just 29 per cent of respondents said that they would be unbothered by the prospect of visiting physical outlets, while most admitted that they had not yet bothered to do so, even though a lot of stores selling non-essential items are now open again for the first time in months.

It is not just the risk of exposure to the coronavirus that is playing on the minds of those consumers who are reticent about returning to the high street. The report found that 47 per cent of people see the need to queue for longer as being a major obstacle standing in the way of making bricks and mortar shops attractive again.

A quarter said that they were disappointed at the fact that they could no longer use fitting rooms to see if fashion items were suitable for them, while 37 per cent said that they did not want to have to stand in line to pay for products.

56 per cent said that they were compelled to carry out additional research using the internet in order to make sure that they are well prepared ahead of any future trip to the high street, with three-quarters of this group saying that a search engine would be their first port of call for looking up product information.

The majority of those questioned said that they had discovered fresh brands and products using the internet over the course of the lockdown, showing that this has been an opportunity for some firms to gain traction.