Amazon is looking to get another leg up on its competition by cornering the growing market of drunk online shoppers in the United States.
Intoxicated Americans who do their shopping through Amazon and other online marketplaces spend an average of $400 a year. This is roughly equivalent to $48 billion annually, something that the Jeff Bezos-founded company is likely itching to get a huge chunk of.
Drunk Online Shopping
In a study conducted by website The Hustle, more than 2,000 alcohol-drinking Americans were asked about their online shopping habits. Here are some of the results:
- 79 percent of the respondents claimed that they have bought something while they were drunk at least once.
- Women (80 percent) were slightly more likely to make drunk purchases online compared to men (78 percent).
- Intoxicated millennials (82 percent) had the most penchant for buying stuff over the internet, followed by Gen Xers (79 percent), and baby boomers (69 percent).
- People who earn an average of more than $100,000 a year (85 percent) were more likely to buy online while drunk, while those with $75,000 to $99,000 (80 percent) and those with $50,000 to $74,000 (78 percent) salaries followed close behind.
- Americans working in sports (94 percent), in transportation (92 percent), and in oil and energy (91 percent) were the top 3 professions to engage in such behavior.
- Writers (60 percent), artists (64 percent), and teachers (68 percent) are the ones least likely to buy stuff online while intoxicated.
These drunken shoppers reportedly spend as much as $444 year on various items online. The most common stuff people bought while were under the influence of alcohol are the following:
- Clothes and shoes
- Movie tickets
- Games
- Tech items
- Food
- Events
- Books
- Houseware
- Travel arrangements
- Sports goods
The Hustle article referred to a study that suggests that people who equate their self-worth to their appearance are more likely to consume alcohol. This seems to support the survey's own findings.
However, this phenomenon is also connected to popularity of a fashion industry that is more dependent on a direct-to-consumer business model.
Amazon vs Everybody
To say that Amazon is the biggest online marketplace in the world is an understatement, and it seems most intoxicated American shoppers agree.
When respondents were asked where they did the most shopping from, a majority of them said they bought mostly from Amazon (85 percent). This was followed by eBay (21 percent), Etsy (12 percent), Target (9 percent), and Walmart (5 percent).
This is good news for Amazon, which is already accounting for 48 percent of all online purchases in 2018. The company expects to bump this figure up even further to 52.4 percent by the end of this year.
Nearly three-quarters (74 percent) of shoppers who are looking to buy a specific product online visit Amazon's website to make the purchase, according to revenue intelligence platform Feedvisor.
Despite efforts by other retailers such as Walmart and Target to expand their online presence, Amazon still seems to be the number 1 choice for consumers. This is likely because of how efficient and easy the company has made it to shop through its app as well as its wide range of products to choose from.
