When Do People Shop Online?
As an ecommerce business owner, understanding consumers’ shopping habits can help to craft an effective sales and marketing strategy. Aside from knowing why people shop online and what they purchase when they do, it would also come in handy to know what the biggest online shopping days and times are. In other words—when do people shop online?
When do people shop online the most?
According to a recent report, the biggest online shopping days of the week in the United States are Friday, Thursday, and Sunday. The report uses an index as a measurement and comparison tool, with an index of 100 being the average. It shows that Friday comes out on top as the most popular day to shop online, with an index of 113, followed by Thursday and Sunday, with 102 each. What this means is people purchase items online more than they usually do on these three biggest online shopping days, with a lot more doing so on Friday.
With regard to the least popular days to shop online, Tuesday and Wednesday take the crown, with indexes of 94 and 95, respectively. Monday and Saturday have an index of 97 each.
In other words, online businesses that want to spur sales may want to consider boosting their online presence (be it via social media marketing, paid ads, or other channels), on Thursdays, Fridays, and Sundays. Abandoned cart emails can also be scheduled to go out on these days to optimize conversions and remind customers they have pending items in their shopping carts.
Getting into specifics and knowing what time of the day online shopping peaks can help to further fine-tune your sales strategy. The same report shows that in the US, 12 p.m. and 1 p.m. are consumers’ favorite times to shop. Both have an index of 144. This is followed by the hours just before and after, at 11 a.m. (with an index of 139) and 2 p.m. (138).
Evenings are also a relatively popular time to shop, with the index registering at 137 at 9 p.m. and 135 at 10 p.m. The report also notes that evenings are also when mobile commerce sales rise the most, with many consumers preferring to check out with payment methods that do not require them to key in their card details.