Synchrony, a consumer financial services company, launched its ninth Major Purchase Journey study, revealing that 5% more people are obtaining financing for large purchases compared with two years ago. 

The study also notes the importance of retail associates in financing decisions and that shoppers 55 and older returned to brick-and-mortar stores in significant numbers, the only demographic to do so in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Half of survey respondents said that recent price increases have led them to seek financing options and 66% agreed that financing makes larger purchases more affordable. Retail associates continue to play an integral role in the shopping experience as 81% of respondents said they directly interacted with a salesperson while shopping for most recent purchase. 

They also play a pivotal role in financing, with 55% of respondents researching financing by asking the retail associate; and among those who obtained financing in-store, 51% were approached by the associate.

“The results of the Major Purchase Journey study illustrate that rising costs have made financing more appealing for shoppers, particularly when they are looking to buy relatively expensive products such as home improvements, jewelry or electronics,” said Michael Bopp, EVP, Chief Growth Officer, Synchrony. “Opportunities exist for retailers to drive engagement with financing throughout the purchase journey to increase sales conversion.”

The study also notes the trend of older shoppers returning to physical stores. According to the study, this year, 74% of shoppers aged 65+ and 71% of shoppers aged 55 to 64 purchased in-store, compared with 66% and 67%, respectively, two years ago. This stands in contrast to shoppers in the 18-to-44 and 45-to-54 age groups, whose in-store purchases remained relatively constant over the past two years.

“Retailers should pay close attention to the trend of older shoppers coming back to physical stores,” reiterated Bopp. “If this behavior continues, retailers may want to consider everything from product mix to store layouts to welcome these customers.”

A biennial report on the latest consumer spending trends, the study surveyed 3,602 individuals who made a purchase of $500 or more in the past six months. The survey covered a number of categories including furniture, electronics, jewelry, appliances, flooring, home improvement and automotive.

The study also shows consumers returning to pre-pandemic levels of shopping behaviors, with mobile device usage down significantly versus its peak in 2021 and the in-store experience and salespeople continuing to play a significant role in the purchase journey.

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BigCommerce, an open SaaS ecommerce platform for fast-growing and established B2C and B2B brands, reported its customers experienced significant increases in sales on Thanksgiving Day and Black Friday compared to last year during the critical start of Cyber Week.

BigCommerce stores experienced a double-digit 14% increase in gross merchandise value (GMV) on Thanksgiving Day 2023 compared to 2022 on a same-store basis — a significant outpacing of the broader global online industry increase of only 1%, according to Salesforce. Additionally, BigCommerce total orders increased by 5% on Thanksgiving, and average order value (AOV) was 8% higher YoY, on a same-store basis, whereas Salesforce reported a global online AOV increase of only 2%. BigCommerce customers have experienced positive year-over-year growth in GMV, AOV and orders each Thanksgiving Day since 2017.

On Black Friday, BigCommerce customer GMV increased 6%, bolstered by a 5% increase in total orders and a 1% increase in AOV, compared to Black Friday 2022 on a same-store basis. Overall global sales on Black Friday were up 8% over 2022, according to Salesforce.

“On Thanksgiving Day and Black Friday, BigCommerce customers grew sales 9% relative to the same days last year on a same-store basis, which is higher than industry-wide US ecommerce growth through the first three quarters of the year,” said Brent Bellm, CEO at BigCommerce. “We attribute the above average performance of BigCommerce merchants to our platform’s leading enterprise capabilities, performance and strong sitewide conversion rates.”

The National Retail Federation (NRF) projects 2023 U.S. holiday sales to be up 3-4% over 2022 to between $957.3 billion and $966.6 billion. That increase is consistent with the average annual holiday increase of 3.6% from 2010 to 2019, prior to the unprecedented growth seen the past three years when trillions of dollars of stimulus led to larger retail spending during the pandemic.

Early holiday shopping results in October pointed to consumers’ resilience with a 5.9% year-over-year increase in online spending reported by Adobe Analytics. Similarly, BigCommerce customers saw positive numbers when it came to online orders, GMV and AOV for the month of October versus the previous year.

In Q3 across all Enterprise stores using BigCommerce’s hosted Stencil platform, checkout, a flagship payment processor, PayPal Wallet and ApplePay, BigCommerce customers’ sitewide conversion rate averaged 2.69%, which is 34% higher than the Q3 internet average, reported by IRP Commerce.

In Q3, sitewide checkout conversion for enterprise customers using BigCommerce’s native checkout, a flagship payment processor, PayPal Wallet and ApplePay, averaged 61.4%. That 61% checkout conversion is substantially better than claims made by one large competitor. BigCommerce delivers higher checkout conversion due to an optimized one-page experience, choice of best-in-market payment providers, optimal integrations and unmatched customization capabilities for a SaaS platform.

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