Survey: The Demographics of Nocturnal Shopping

Curious about our customers, we recently conducted a study that revealed what online shoppers buy after 9pm in the evening.The study had taken into consideration top ten cities based on visitor count, including New Delhi, Bengaluru, Mumbai, Kolkata, Hyderabad, Chennai, Pune, Lucknow, Noida and Ahmedabad.

In the process, we realised that contrary to popular beliefs, the night shopper actually preferred desktops over mobile phones while shopping online. Even though 50% of total online shopping happens over mobile phones, desktops still rule with users spending 10% more time on it than the time spent on mobile phones. Buyers would also visit around 17% more pages on their desktops during the night.

Apparels

In terms of apparel shopping, women were found to be far more active than men during the night, accounting for 63% with conversion time peaking between 10pm – 11pm. Moreover, while 18 – 34 year olds comprise the major chunk of online shoppers (more than 50%) at the same duration, a sizeable 35% of the shoppers are in the age group of 35 years and above.

CDIT (Consumer Durables and Information Technologies)

Here, we found men to be far more active shoppers than women at 72%, with visitors peaking at 9 pm. 50% of the shoppers are between the age group 18 – 34 years, while 22% are of the age group 35 and above.

Cosmetics

Interestingly, the average purchase value of cosmetics is 1% higher during the 9pm – 9am slot when compared to 9am – 9pm one, with 76% women and 34% men active, peaking between 9pm – 11pm. The survey revealed a surprising insight: people above the 65 year age bracket actively shopped for cosmetics, while 18 – 34 year olds formed the major portion of online shopper. About 15% of shoppers were over the age of 35 years.

Groceries

We saw that the bulk of grocery shopping happens in the morning between 9am – 9pm, after which, the purchase value drops by 8% with women and men being equally active, thereby accounting for a 50 – 50% ratio. In terms of a demographic split, 18 – 34 year olds constituted more than half of the total shoppers while 34% of the shoppers were seen to be between the age group of 35 – 65 years.

Sports

Given the sheer number of visitors that sports goods entail, they see their maximum conversions between 11pm – 2am with 73% men and 27% women active during the night. Fitness has become a rising concern and is one testified by the 65 year olds who are also active buyers of sports and fitness goods. Of course, 18 – 34 year olds still form the majority proportion of nocturnal shoppers.

Speaking on the survey findings, Abhijeet Vijayvergiya, VP and Business Head, India and South-East Asia, Capillary technologies, commented “While several studies have been conducted in the eCommerce domain, most of these looked at consumer buying behavior during the day and many have derived the conclusion that the mobile phone rules over the desktop as shoppers are increasingly switching over to the former. Brands then adopt a mobile first strategy to retail their products over the internet. Our survey revealed a different reality altogether, with good old desktops toppling mobile commerce during the night and, contrary to the general assumption, both men and women are more or less equally active at the same time, across all age groups.”

Additionally, both the genders are completely category agnostic, shopping for everything ranging from apparels and groceries to sports goods during the night. We hope to bring out more such interesting studies in the coming times.

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Capillary Technologies is an AI-powered loyalty platform for enterprise brands. Capillary Marcom is the official handle for Capillary's marketing and communications team. Write to marcomm@capillarytech.com for more information.