Who Buys Online in 2018? Women/Men/Old/Young? We'll tell you!

Who Buys Online?

Who buys products online in 2018?

This is a question that is too infrequently asked by people who try to sell online.

If you have a product that you are trying to sell online, it makes sense to first determine if your targeted audience is one who actually buys products online.

First, you absolutely need to find out if your product caters to those who buy online.

Secondly, to be an effective online advertiser, you need to know your advertising audience exactly! This will save you money and drastically improve the amount of people who actually buy your product.

But, how do you find this out?

In an article entitled “The surprising facts about who shops online and on mobile“, Cooper Smith attempted to find out the answer to this very question.

This topic was further researched in-depth in an article entitled The 19 Ecommerce Trends + 147 Online Shopping Stats Fueling Sales Growth in 2018 by Tracey Wallace.

The conclusions in these articles may surprise you.

Who Buys Online in 2018: Inside the Numbers

From a big picture point of view, Smith used this comScore data to determine that 78% of the U.S. population over the age of 15 has purchased something online in the last quarter alone.

In Tracey Wallace’s analysis, which is more recent, she found that this number has increased to 80% in the past month alone.

This is great news for online retailers of all varieties if that 80% comprises your customer base. But does it?

Smith and Wallace identify some interesting trends…several of which defy a conventional myths:

In 2018, men spent 28% more online than women despite the fact that women conventionally drive 80% of household spending.
Both men and women average 5 hours per week shopping online.
Men are more likely to purchase items from their SmartPhone than women.
Millennials will spend an average of 6 hours per week shopping online.
The so-called Millenials are the biggest spenders online despite having less to spend than their elder counterparts.
25% of mobile shoppers are over the age of 55.
Online shoppers tend to be wealthy with an average income over $75,000.
51% of Americans prefer shopping online.
Seniors are less-influenced by discounts than the younger folks.

What To Do With These Online Buying Statistics

At The SEO System, we are all about taking action to enhance your online business. So, what will your action items be after reading the above online buyer behavior? For everyone who sells items online, there are action items to be derived from valid statistics.

Here are few items that you can take away from these newly obtained statistics:

Step up your game with the youngsters–those between 18-34 spend the most.
Provide for both men and women equally–traditional advice that women buy a whole lot more online is simply wrong!
Don’t ignore the aged–they have upped up their technological prowess and have a lot of money.
Make mobile a priority — “Retailers with a mobile-first mentality will outperform those that treat mobile as a second priority. ” ~ Steve Deckert, Co-Founder, Smile.io

Implement a few of these action items and you’ll be on the road to enjoying more online success.

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Richard Cummings

Director of SEO, Social Media, and Web Content Development at The SEO System

Richard Cummings has been practicing online marketing for many years and has setup and optimized hundreds of WordPress sites.He founded The SEO System to provide SEO, social media, and online marketing services and software to businesses.