Swiss consumers are shopping more than before online, but they still prefer to buy most kinds of products in the physical stores, according to a study commissioned by the Swiss Retail Federation to Oliver Wyman, which conducted its survey in November. The overall share of purchases made in brick-and-mortar stores has declined to 54 percent from 61 percent in 2019, due in part to the Covid pandemic, but the report highlights huge variations from one product category to the other. When it comes to sporting goods, only 10 percent of consumers buy them mainly on the internet, while 34 percent buy them mainly in brick-and-mortar stores and 57 percent rely on both retail channels. E-commerce has become the preferred purchase mode for clothing and footwear for 17 percent of Swiss consumers, compared with 35 percent of them privileging the physical stores, mainly in order to touch and test the products, and to avoid shipment fees. For both product categories, brick-and-mortar retailing represented more than 50 percent of actual sales before the pandemic, but the omni-channel experience is now dominating the customer journey. The highest rates for e-commerce as a preference are reached for books at 35 percent and electronics at 19 percent.
