It’s impossible to not address the elephant in the room that is COVID-19. With brick-and-mortar stores temporarily closing and Amazon delivery restrictions constantly changing, the impact of this pandemic will continue to alter some behaviors of online shoppers — but not all.
Although the coronavirus has affected many key factors such as time spent shopping and cost per transaction, we can still focus on two important questions: who is the Amazon shopper in 2020 and how are they buying? Tinuiti 2020 Amazon Shopper Survey offers many valuable insights necessary to maximize your ad-spending efficiency in an unpredictable time where precise targeting is more crucial than ever.
Read More: How Much Omnichannel Is Right For Your Business?
For three consecutive years, Tinuiti has conducted a survey of over 2,000 Amazon consumers ages 18 and over. This year’s responses were recorded from January 30, 2020 to February 11, 2020 and these answers can assist brands in making data-driven decisions regarding their Amazon strategy.
Here are just a few of the key findings that will help your brand conquer the Amazon marketplace:
Understanding Amazon Super Spenders
Super Spenders are people who spend over $100 on Amazon each month — a group that dramatically increased by 57% from 2019 to make up over 21% of all shoppers. Take a look at some important numbers about Super Spenders in 2020:
- Over 40% purchase apparel, electronics and health & beauty products on Amazon
- 48% made a purchase on Prime Day, 45% on Black Friday weekend
- 41% of Millenial Super Spenders use a Subscribe & Save service — 161% higher than overall
“Alexa, who is using you to shop in 2020?”
Believe it or not, it’s seniors. Overall, the number of shoppers who have used a voice-enabled device to order on Amazon in the past 6 months was over 12%, which is up 4% from last year. But for consumers 65 years and older, 7.9% use Alexa-enhanced devices — 97% higher than the tech-native Generation Z.
Interestingly enough, it’s not just smart speakers that drive the Alexa sales; Fire TV is starting to play a much bigger role with 1.6% of shoppers saying it’s the device they use most often–this is compared to 0.6% for voice-enabled devices such as Echo.
Read More: Best Ways to Increase Inbound Leads
How Cynical or Skeptical Are Amazon Shoppers?
Do consumers trust reviews? Yes. Although the percentage has slightly diminished from previous years, almost 70% of shoppers say that they fully or somewhat trust Amazon reviews. This is especially true with members of Generation Z (ages 23 and younger), who are 15% more likely to fully trust reviews. This overall shopper trust also aligns with data findings that examine consumers’ willingness to try new brands. In fact, more than 78% of those who fully trust reviews say they use Amazon to find new brands or products.
Do consumers trust ads? Another yes. The percentage of shoppers who trust Amazon ads has remained virtually unchanged each year at around 88%. Going further, nearly 1 in 5 shoppers find these ads to be “useful and important”, which is slightly down from 2019, but still promising for advertisers.
However, despite the apparent buyer trust in reviews and ads, Amazon customers are still very wary of counterfeit products. In each of the last two years, around 70% of those surveyed said they were somewhat concerned about counterfeits from third party sellers on Amazon.
What now?
Our findings indicate that Amazon continues to play a critical role in a brand’s ability to reach new customers, a growing number of whom are “Super Spenders” willing to push up their basket size and give brands an opportunity to increase their Average Order Value.
Furthermore, we believe the stability in consumer trust of Amazon ads is one of the reasons why the effectiveness of Amazon ads continues to grow year over year.
These were some general takeaways that can apply to most online sellers, but the 2020 Amazon Shopper Survey dives much deeper into age, gender, device usage, monthly spending and beyond. Gain more insight into your shopping category and re-examine how your target audience uses the largest online retailer in the world so that you can stay ahead of the curve in 2020, especially in a time where online shopping is forced to become the new normal.
