Global e-commerce transactions are projected to shoot up by 27% over the holiday period, October through December this year, new benchmark data from ACI Worldwide shows.
Based on hundreds of millions of e-commerce transactions from global merchants, the data also projected a 40% increase in the buy-online-pick-up-in-store (BOPIS) or click-and-collect channel.
ACI Worldwide EVP Debbie Guerra noted that although a number of brick-and-mortar stores have closed due to the pandemic, their e-commerce sites remain available. On the other hand, some stores that have reopened haven’t seen much foot traffic due to consumers’ concern about large crowds.
“Therefore, as consumers spend more time at home, we expect BOPIS to be the primary delivery channel that consumers use to do their holiday shopping this year,” said Guerra. “Moreover, as we head into the holiday shopping season, we see consumers beginning their shopping in early October as a result of concerns over inventory shortages, as well as shipment delays, but also because merchants are providing sales and deals earlier in the year.”
Last September, global e-commerce transactions increased by 21% year-on-year. In addition, fraudsters continued to purchase higher-value items such as electronics—fraud attempt purchase value increased to $9 in 2020 vs 2019.
“We expect the BOPIS delivery channel to grow for both genuine and fraudulent consumers as merchants both large and small continue to add this as a new option due to the pandemic,” said Guerra.
She said the accelerated use of digital payment channels due to the pandemic has resulted in both cross-channel journeys such as BOPIS as well as the blurring of the channels themselves—such as the usage of mobile devices and mobile check-out inside physical stores.
“This digital swing has opened a way to expand merchants’ market reach by enhancing the buying journey experience—but it also means more exposure to fraud, which merchants must be prepared for as we get further into the holiday season,” added Guerra.
Also, e-commerce purchasing trends show that sectors that continue to experience major increases in purchases in September include gaming (71% increase) and retail (45% increase).
Sectors that continue to experience major decreases in purchases in September include travel (21% decrease) and ticketing (75% decrease).
