Almost all online shoppers by from online marketplaces at least once a week, new Digital Commerce 360 and Bizrate Insights research shows.
Diving deeper, more than half of consumers buy from online marketplaces either a few times a month or a few times a week.
30.09% of respondents in a survey of 1,017 consumers said they buy from online marketplaces such as Amazon, eBay and Etsy a few times a month. Meanwhile, 20.16% said they buy from one a few times a week. Every respondent said they buy from online marketplaces, and only seven (0.69%) were unsure of how often.
Who buys from which marketplace?
More than three-quarters (75.81%) of surveyed consumers said they’ve purchased from a seller on Amazon’s marketplace. Similarly, 35.2% didn’t know if their purchase on the marketplace came from Amazon itself or a seller. Additionally, about a third said they were more likely to buy a product on the marketplace from Amazon itself rather than from a third-party seller (32.84%).
More than four in 10 said they have left a product review on Amazon (43.56%). That compares with just over a quarter (25.27%) who said they’ve left a product review on a marketplace other than Amazon.
Outside of U.S.-based marketplaces, 28.12% have purchased from a Chinese marketplace (such as Tmall, Tabao, JD, AliExpress or Temu).
In total, just 13.37% said products they purchased on marketplaces in the past were out of stock, not available or had long delivery lead times. 6.78% said they received a counterfeit or misrepresented product on a marketplace.
Not even one in five surveyed consumers placed an order on a marketplace for same-day delivery (16.22%).
Product assortment
More than half of the consumers said they noticed more products on marketplaces in 2024 than the year before. Of them, 27% said they saw significantly more products, whereas about a quarter (25.76%) said they saw somewhat more products in 2024 than in 2023.
Less than 10% said they saw a smaller assortment of products on marketplaces this year than in 2023. Meanwhile, 41% of surveyed consumers said the product assortment seemed about the same in 2024 as in 2023.
Marketplace shopping challenges in 2024
When it comes to marketplace shopping challenges, the most cited answer, which over a third selected (35.5%), was that prices were higher in 2024 than the previous year. On that same note, more than a quarter (27.43%) said shipping fees were higher, too. Moreover, 23% said there were longer lead times for delivery.
About a fifth (20.55%) said it was difficult to distinguish between third-party marketplace sellers and items sold by the marketplace owner itself (such as Amazon Basics product on Amazon.com).
16.42% said they struggled to discern if products were made in the United States, and another 14.75% said they struggled to discern whether products were counterfeit.
Behavior and perceptions
How consumers feel about shopping on a marketplace is also insightful.
More than a fifth of surveyed shoppers (21.53%) said they noticed prices on marketplaces are often lower than those on other retailers’ sites.
16.52% of consumers said the fees, including shipping, are often less than on other retailer sites. Meanwhile, 13.96% said the prices, including shipping fees, were in line with the retailer sites they normally shop.
In addition, nearly one in five (19.37%) said they find the broader product assortments on marketplaces appealing. A similar amount, 16.13%, said online marketplaces had more inventory than some of the individual retailers’ sites where they shop.
18.19% said they’re more comfortable with the online marketplace model given their purchases in the past year. This could reflect shoppers comparing prices on marketplaces rather than shopping solely with a single retailer. On the other hand, the same amount said they dislike when retailers, like Target and Walmart, add online marketplaces. These consumers said the marketplaces become cluttered and policies vary for each product.
Online marketplace buying behavior in 2024
More than half of surveyed consumers (58.11%) said they’ll buy from online marketplaces at a similar rate in 2024 as 2023. Just over a fifth said they’d buy more (21.14%). And just over a tenth said they’d by less (11.6%). Just under 5% each said they buy exclusively on marketplaces (4.42%) or don’t now and don’t intend to (4.72%).
This is an area where a consumer’s age factors into decision-making.
Buying behavior varies by age
More than three-quarters of consumers age 65 and up (75.68%) said they’ll buy the same amount from online marketplaces this year as in 2023. That figure goes down more with each younger age group. 67.5% of shoppers age 55 to 64 said they’d shop the same amount in 2024 as last year. That falls to 61.63% for those age 40 to 54, and to just over half for those age 30 to 39 (51.21%). Not even half of those ages 18 to 29 (43%) said they’d buy the same amount from online marketplaces in 2024 as the year before.
That’s because the trend reverses when it comes to buying more from online marketplaces in 2024 versus the year before. Nearly a third of consumers ages 18 to 29 (30.5%) said they’ll shop more from online marketplaces this year. That goes down to just over a quarter for those age 30 to 39 (25.81%), and just over a fifth for those ages 40 to 54 (20.16%). 14.5% of consumers in the 55-64 age group said they’ll buy more from online marketplaces this year. And that goes down to just 8.11% for those 65 and older.
When it comes to buying less from online marketplaces in 2024, the age group that cited that response most was those 40 to 54 (13.57%). And there was no such one-sided trend among age groups like there was for buying more or the same amount this year. That was also the case for the consumers who don’t buy on marketplaces now and don’t intend to.
However, there was a clear trend among the small cohort of consumers (4% of the total surveyed group) who said they will buy exclusively on marketplaces. Within that 4%, those in the 18-29 age group are most likely to buy exclusively on marketplaces (9%). That falls to 7.66% for those 30 to 39 years old, and 2.33% for those 40-54. Just 1% of those in the 55-to-64 age group said they’d buy exclusively on marketplaces. None of the surveyed consumers in the 65 and up age group said they’d buy exclusively from online marketplaces.
Exploring new products on marketplaces
Nearly half of surveyed consumers said they would buy on marketplaces from brands or sellers they hadn’t heard of (49.26%). Just under a fifth (19.86%) said they wouldn’t. The remainder (30.88%) were unsure what they’d do.
Almost half of consumers said they have purchased from a seller’s own website after finding their products on a marketplace (49.36%). Over a third (36.58%) have not, and 14.06% were unsure if they had.
Ratings, reviews and purchase decisions
Most consumers said customer ratings and reviews influence their purchasing decisions when shopping online marketplaces. 59.19% said they always look at ratings and reviews and usually base their decisions on them. More than a third, 36.28%, said they sometimes look at ratings and reviews before making a decision. Just 4.52% said they never look at ratings and reviews before buying from online marketplaces.
By age, 69% of those 18 to 29 said they always look at ratings and reviews before buying from online marketplaces. The likelihood drops among increasingly older groups of shoppers, according to survey data. 65.73% of those 30 to 39 said they always look at ratings first, and 63.95% of those 40 to 54. Less than half of those 55 and up do so — 47.5% for those 55 to 64, and 36.94% of those 65 and older.
Marketplace versus direct-to-consumer: what converts shoppers
In line with previous Digital Commerce 360 survey findings and conventional wisdom, price is key for shoppers.
Most consumers (52.61%) said better prices are what influence them to purchase from an online marketplace rather than going straight to a retailer’s site. Close behind was free or discounted shipping (50.34% cited it). No other factor got more than half of consumers to select it, but more than a third cited delivery speed (38.74%).
Meanwhile, more than a quarter cited:
- In-stock products (31.27%)
- More convenient way to shop (30.78%)
- Ease of finding specific items (27.63%)
Online marketplace shopping concerns
The top three concerns for consumers purchasing from online marketplaces were:
- High shipping costs (39.23% cited)
- Long shipping times (37.36%)
- Fraudulent practices, including counterfeit products (33.43%)
Nearly one in three consumers (29.4%) cited a lack of return options. More than a quarter cited the validity of reviews (27.52%) and a lack of customer service to handle order issues (27.24%).
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