COVID-19 and the usage of large electronic commerce sites

This survey from MMD Labo looked at people’s usage of large electronic commerce sites during the pandemic.

Our family’s use of shopping sites hasn’t really changed. I still prefer the old-fashioned way of actually going to a shop, and I’m quite happy to place my trust in facemasks and antibacterial lotions. Also, working at home I think it’s good for one’s general well-being to get out of the house and get some fresh air regularly, and fortunately Japan isn’t populated with too many idiots that refuse to wear masks.

Research results

Q1: Which Electronic Commerce (EC) sites have you used? (Sample size=10,000, multiple answer)

Amazon	69.7%
Rakuten Ichiba	68.7%
Yahoo! Shopping	46.9%
PayPay Mall	14.3%
LOHACO	11.4%
Omni 7	9.3%
au PAY Market (previously au Wowma!)	7.9%
d Shopping	7.7%
au WALLET Market	5.6%
Other	1.3%
Never used any EC site	9.9%

Q1SQ1: Which EC site do you use the most? (Sample size=9,010)

Rakuten Ichiba	41.4%
Amazon	38.1%
Yahoo! Shopping	13.0%
au PAY Market (previously au Wowma!)	1.8%
PayPay Mall	1.7%
Omni 7	1.0%
d Shopping	0.9%
LOHACO	0.7%
au WALLET Market	0.6%
Other	0.8%

Q1SQ2: How has your use of EC sites changed since the start of the pandemic? (Sample size=9,010)

Not changed	73.8%
Increased	21.3%
Started using due to pandemic	4.8%

Now, for the results of the more detailed survey:

Q2: Once the pandemic began, why did you choose to start using these EC sites?

Amazon (Sample size=226, top three reasons)

Rank	Reason	Percentage
1	Wide selection of goods	36.3%
2	Easy to search for items	27.4%
3	Prompt delivery	25.7%

Rakuten (Sample size=187, top three reasons)

Rank	Reason	Percentage
1	Easy to earn points	40.1%
2	Easy to use points	36.9%
3	Wide selection of goods	35.8%

Yahoo! Shopping (Sample size=148, top three reasons)

Rank	Reason	Percentage
1	Wide selection of goods	29.7%
2	Easy to use points	27.7%
3	Easy to earn points	25.0%

Q3: Once the pandemic began, why did your use of these EC sites increase?

Amazon (Sample size=949, top three reasons)

Rank	Reason	Percentage
1	Wide selection of goods	45.4%
2	Easy to search for items	38.8%
3	Prompt delivery	38.7%

Rakuten (Sample size=882, top three reasons)

Rank	Reason	Percentage
1	Easy to earn points	56.3%
2	Easy to use points	51.2%
3	Wide selection of goods	37.9%

Yahoo! Shopping (Sample size=391, top three reasons)

Rank	Reason	Percentage
1	Easy to earn points	48.3%
2	Easy to use points	44.0%
3	Wide selection of goods	28.4%

Q4: For the main EC site you use, which related services have you used?

Amazon (Sample size=226, top three services)

Rank	Service	Percentage
1	Amazon gift card	60.2%
2	Amazon points	55.8%
3	Amazon Prime	50.9%

Rakuten (Sample size=281, top three services)

Rank	Service	Percentage
1	Rakuten points	74.0%
2	Rakuten credit card	67.6%
3	Rakuten bank	38.3%

Yahoo! Shopping (Sample size=279, top three services)

Rank	Service	Percentage
1	T-Point	77.4%
2	PayPay	52.3%
3	Yahoo! Premium	43.7%

Demographics

Between the 31st of October and the 2nd of November 2020 10,000 members of the MMD Labo monitor group aged between 15 and 69 years old completed a private internet-based questionnaire. From that sample 900 people, 300 who used Amazon as their main EC site, 300 Rakuten Ichiba, and 300 Yahoo! Shopping.