Verizon Says Online Shopping Traffic Went Up 82 Percent

Verizon’s Business Retail Trends Report finds that holiday shopping is surging early this year and confirms how COVID-19 restrictions and concerns could be linked to an increase in online shopping this holiday season. According to the report, online retailers are booming.

A sampling of traffic to 20 of the top 100 retailers, according to the National Retail Federation (NRF), comparing the first week of November 2019 to the first week of November 2020, shows an 82% increase in data traffic. Separately, mobility traffic to and around the U.S.’s largest malls has decreased dramatically from last year. People are moving to and around malls 20% less than they did last year during early November, the study found. They were also moving to and around malls 59% more than they were when pandemic restrictions were at their peak in April of 2020. This has resulted in 28% increase in use on payment sites versus last year.

“Our report confirms what we expected to be true, significant shifts continue from in-person, brick and mortar shopping to online shopping,“ said Michele Dupre, VP of Sales Vertical Markets, Retail and Hospitality for Verizon Business. “What’s surprising and promising for retail stores is while mobility around U.S. malls is down from last year, it’s up significantly at 59% since the height of the pandemic. Online retailers will need to continue to invest in creative and innovative customer experiences, to capture revenue and offset lost sales from in-person shopping.“