Home & Garden, Electronics, Health & Beauty are Most Impacted by Showrooming, Accounting for Over Half of Lost Dollars
CHICAGO, IL December 16, 2021 – Numerator, a data and tech company serving the market research space, has released a report to quantify the showrooming effect — when consumers browse a brick-and-mortar store and then buy online. The analysis covers cross-shopping behavior among the largest US retailers, including Amazon, Walmart, Target and Costco – specifically, consumers who supplement in-store shopping trips with an Amazon purchase within one day.
Key purchase data findings include:
The Amazon crossover is substantial and consistent across major retailers. Roughly three-quarters of major retailers’ shoppers also shop at Amazon. (76% of Walmart shoppers, 77% of Target shoppers, 75% of Costco shoppers).
Walmart buyers are the most likely to shop on Amazon within one day. Over half (53%) of Walmart shoppers made an Amazon purchase within a day of shopping in-store at Walmart, compared to 38% of both Target and Costco shoppers.
Target has the largest opportunity to capture lost day-of sales to Amazon. By preventing leaked same-day trips to Amazon, Target has the potential to capture 10.3% in incremental sales, followed by Walmart (+7.2%) and Costco (+4.7%).
General Merchandise items make up the majority of leaked sales to Amazon. The top four leaked categories (Home & Garden, Electronics, Health & Beauty, Apparel) accounted for over half of all leaked dollars at each retailer.
- Home & Garden products at Walmart had the highest percentage of leaked sales (18.5%) among all categories and retailers.
- Electronics leakage was highest at Costco (15.9% of leaked sales), followed by Walmart (14.9%) and Target (14.2%).
- Target was the only retailer to have Grocery appear in the top five leaked categories (5.2% of leaked sales).
In addition to purchase data analysis, Numerator issued a survey to verified Walmart and Target buyers who had followed their in-store purchase with an Amazon order to understand the motivations behind cross-shopping. Key survey data findings include:
Product availability and ease of delivery were top reasons cited for buying on Amazon after shopping in-store.
- 30% of Walmart-to-Amazon shoppers said they made the Amazon purchase due to lack of product availability in-store, 6 points higher than reported by Target shoppers (24%).
- Nearly one-third of both Target and Walmart shoppers claimed “ease of delivery” as their reason for buying on Amazon – despite being in the brick-and-mortar store that same day.
- Lower prices were cited as the reason for shopping on Amazon by 22% of Walmart shoppers and 20% of Target shoppers.
- Nearly a quarter (24%) of Target shoppers said they bought on Amazon because they had already searched for the products on Amazon before going in-store, 7 points higher than Walmart shoppers who said the same (17%).
Walmart has an opportunity to capture leaked trips by reducing out of stocks and improving the in-store shopping experience, while Target could focus on pricing and promotions.
- When asked what Walmart or Target could do to capture more of a consumer’s purchases, nearly 2 in 5 consumers (39%) said Walmart should focus on product availability, 14 points higher than those who said the same for Target (25%).
- Offering lower prices was the top recommendation from Target shoppers (39%), compared to 36% of Walmart shoppers.
- Improving the in-store experience represented the largest gap (21 points) between Walmart and Target shoppers, with nearly 1 in 3 Walmart shoppers (28%) making this request, compared to 7% of Target shoppers.
Percentage of Retailer’s Leaked Sales to Amazon, by Category
| WALMART | |
| Category | % of Leaked Sales |
| Home & Garden | 18.5% |
| Electronics | 14.9% |
| Health & Beauty | 12.9% |
| Apparel | 8.4% |
| Tools & Home Improvement | 5.1% |
| TARGET | |
| Category | % of Leaked Sales |
| Home & Garden | 16.8% |
| Electronics | 14.2% |
| Health & Beauty | 13.3% |
| Apparel | 9.2% |
| Grocery | 5.2% |
| COSTCO | |
| Category | % of Leaked Sales |
| Home & Garden | 18.2% |
| Electronics | 15.9% |
| Health & Beauty | 13.5% |
| Apparel | 8.2% |
| Grocery | 5.2% |
Methodology: Share data is sourced from Numerator TruView and represents the period of Q1-Q3 2021 (1/1/21 – 9/30/21) and includes all channels and categories. Numerator Insights data covers the same range. The custom Numerator Survey was fielded to 1000+ verified Walmart and Target shoppers with a following verified Amazon purchase.
About Numerator
Numerator is a data and tech company bringing speed and scale to market research. Headquartered in Chicago, IL, Numerator has more than 2,600 employees worldwide. The company blends proprietary data with advanced technology to create unique insights for the market research industry that has been slow to change. The majority of Fortune 100 companies are Numerator clients.
