More than a quarter of UK shoppers now make most of their purchases online – an increase of 18% when compared to shopping pre-pandemic, according to new data.

In a survey of 4,000 international shoppers, in seven different territories, it was found those living in the UK were most likely to have changed their shopping habits over the past few years.

Global business messaging provider Esendex surveyed customers in the UK, the US, Australia, France, Germany, Italy and Spain to discover what the retail landscape looks like in 2022.

According to the collected data, more than a quarter of UK shoppers (29%) now make more than 80% of their purchases through online shopping, compared to 11% pre-pandemic.

In the territories surveyed, France experienced the least change, with an 8% increase in customers making most of their purchases online, compared to 2020, closely followed by Spain at 9%.

Wider statistics from the survey show that those living in the UK, France and Italy are the least patient when it comes to customer service. More than half of the respondents from these territories admit they get frustrated if they must wait more than five hours for a response – highlighting the demand for an always-on culture.

Chris Gorman, Head of Professional Services at Esendex, commented: “We wanted to do a deep dive into the customer of today, post-pandemic. At the heart of what we discovered is that there’s been a real shift in shopping habits, in the way people are making purchases, and wanting to get in contact with their favourite brands.

“The lesson here is for businesses to ensure they build an omnichannel presence so that customers can stay in touch – and get in touch – with companies via the platform(s) they prefer. Businesses should also look to invest in different ways of improving their customer service response time, through email autoresponders, live chat and chatbots, for example.”

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The findings aim to provide businesses a better understanding of customer expectations, alongside actionable tips to improve response times.

Despite call centres being a traditional means of communication between brands and their customers, this is now the preference for under half of the UK population (43%); shoppers would far prefer email, or to contact customer service via SMS or WhatsApp.

The US was the only territory where more than 50% of shoppers would rather get in touch with a company via phone.

In a similar vein, almost four in five (79%) UK consumers would consider purchasing a product from a company because of a marketing message received via text or WhatsApp, with notifications of a sale, one-time discount, or alert that an item they wanted is back in stock, most likely to lure them in.

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