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 Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. 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 118, followed by Thursday and Saturday, with 105 and 101, respectively. 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 Monday take the crown, with indexes of 89 and 92, respectively. Wednesday and Sunday have indexes of 95 and 100, respectively.
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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 Saturdays. 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, 1 p.m. and 2 p.m. are consumers’ favorite times to shop.
Biggest online shopping days: other countries
If your target audience is located in another market, you’ll need to know when people there shop online and adjust your marketing plan accordingly.
For instance, in the United Kingdom, the biggest online shopping days are Wednesday and Sunday. Both days have an index of 103. Meanwhile, across the channel, French online shoppers are most active on Thursdays (109) and Wednesdays (108). Consumers in Germany, which features on the list ranking ecommerce market size by country, shop the most on Wednesdays and Sundays.