About a third of consumers are shopping at pre-COVID-19 levels. They're just doing it online.

Dive Brief:

According to a report from PYMNTS.com, 32.8% of shoppers are buying retail goods as much as they did before the coronavirus outbreak but are now making their purchases online. That's higher than the number of consumers who have moved online more often to shop for groceries or to order from restaurants, which stand at 12.8% and 16.1% respectively.
The report also found that 24.6% of bridge millennials, 23.8% of millennials and 17% of Gen Z consumers have shifted some routines to digital channels and plan to maintain those changes even after the pandemic. Gen X leads the way, with 26% of them saying the same.
PYMNTS.com's findings indicate some digital behaviors differ based on income. Consumers who earn less than $50,000 were most likely to not shift their routines online, with 38% indicating they had made no shifts, while 34% of consumers who earn between $50,000 and $100,000 have moved routines online and plan to maintain all of their digital habits after the pandemic. For consumers earning more than $100,000, 46% said they shifted activities online and plan to maintain some of those behaviors after the pandemic ends, and 38% of the same group plan to maintain all of their shifted behaviors post-pandemic.

Dive Insight:

There's no denying that the pandemic has given a boost to e-commerce, at least in the short term.

A Mastercard SpendingPulse report found that e-commerce sales increased by 92.7% in May, and research by Adobe found a surge in buy online, pickup in-store (BOPIS) transactions in April. PYMNTS.com's report sheds light on which demographics are transitioning to digital channels for daily tasks and who will continue to do so even once consumers are allowed to safely enter physical locations again.

A large chunk of respondents across generations are not shifting their habits online, with 64.1% of Gen Z respondents saying they haven't made shifts in their online routines during the pandemic, followed by baby boomers and seniors (59.9%), and Gen X (58.2%).

The report also sheds light on consumers' financial health during the pandemic and how that relates to their digital usage patterns. On average, consumers that have not changed their digital shopping habits during the pandemic have enough savings to cover their expenses for 78 days, while consumers who have begun buying retail goods online more often can last an average of 68 days on their current savings, per the report.