Mobile shopping is having a serious moment with shoppers of all ages.
During the 2019 holiday season, the vast majority of consumers (80 percent) used their mobile devices to buy products online. That’s up 12 percent from the year prior, according to payment platform Afterpay’s newly released consumer survey data.
The platform, which allows consumers to pay for purchases in four installments over six weeks, services 9,000 brands and retailers. The ones that fared best during the period between Nov. 15 and the end of December were those selling fashion and beauty products, the company said.
Among the site’s mostly millennial and Gen Z users, athleisure, cosmetics and lifestyle brands dominated holiday shopping lists.
Basketball and running shoes emerged as the top-selling items, with the men’s Air Jordan Retro 12 and men’s Nike Air VaporMax Plus winning with sneakerheads. Athletic footwear continued to be a favored category for consumers in the U.S. and U.K.
Best-selling U.S. apparel and footwear brands over the holidays included Nike, Levi’s and Steve Madden, and the retailers that won the season were DSW, Urban Outfitters and GOAT, an online sneaker marketplace.
Unsurprisingly, Black Friday was the most active shopping day for Afterpay users, followed closely by Cyber Monday in the U.S. and Boxing Day in Australia and New Zealand. Over the course of the season, global shopping cart size increased by more than 3 percent year over year.
A 2019 survey from market research group Morning Consult revealed that millennials buy fashion and beauty products more frequently than any other items, including books, entertainment and home decor. What’s more, they stand to attain the highest purchasing power of any other generational cohort in 2020, totaling roughly $15 trillion worldwide.
As the group’s ability to spend grows, analysts believe millennials will turn increasingly to online commerce, and consequently, to alternative digital payment solutions like Afterpay.
Residents of large metropolitan areas and global hubs stand to use these services most regularly, given the high cost of living in populous cities (and the desire to defer, or spread out, payments). Afterpay’s highest shopping volume globally during the holiday shopping rush came from the urban areas of Los Angeles, Chicago, Brooklyn, London and Houston, the company said.