As shopping steadily shifts online, consumers around the globe are expanding their purchases into more categories. Research from Nielsen shows that the category with the most significant growth in digital purchase intent between 2010 and early 2012 is computer/game software (the global gaming market is forecast to grow at a compound annual rate of nearly 14 percent through 2015, reaching $118 billion). Consumers have also become much more interested in buying entertainment tickets using their connected devices, according to the survey of more than 28,000 online consumers in 56 countries.
Notably, digital is starting to reshape the grocery sector. Intent to purchase food or beverage products rose 44 percent since 2010, to just over a quarter of respondents. Around half of respondents—and more than 6 in 10 Asian consumers—had bought a grocery product online, and 6 in 10 had gone online to do grocery shopping research. Nielsen notes that shoppers in CPG categories will likely become “omni-channel,” with online supplementing brick-and-mortar. With the rise of new ideas like “click and collect,” we’re starting to see retailers adjust their operations accordingly
