This report summarises the findings from the Voice of the Consumer: Digital Shopper Survey, conducted in March and April 2025. This annual survey, which measures the attitudes towards digital commerce of 20,000 consumers around the globe, examines how new technologies are influencing consumer behaviour. Key areas of exploration include emerging digital channels, digital path to purchase, delivery and returns, privacy, security and trust, and comfort with new technologies.
Delivery
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Key findings
Social media and livestreaming are the most significant emerging channels in digital commerce
In 2025, consumers are spending more time on social media. While YouTube is the leading platform globally, it is ByteDance-owned TikTok and Douyin that are surging thanks to their focus on mobile-optimised, short-form video. They are also powering the global growth of livestreaming e-commerce, an increasingly popular channel for purchases of fashion and grocery products.
Smartphones are more important than ever in the digital path to purchase
Globally, smartphones have become the most important tool that consumers use to research products and services, make purchases, and authorise digital payments worldwide. The adoption of digital wallets, Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL) services, and mobile commerce continue expanding, particularly in Asia Pacific, reshaping global consumer behaviour and payment preferences.
Retail and foodservice players are rethinking delivery and returns
In 2025, online retail customers continue to value free delivery and returns. However, offering these services imposes rising costs and sustainability challenges on retailers. As a result, many retailers are testing fees and imposing limits on returns. Meanwhile, in foodservice e-commerce, mobile ordering dominates, fuelling competition between restaurants and third-party delivery platforms.
The right incentives help allay consumer concerns about digital privacy and security
As consumers shift more of their day-to-day activities to the internet, they are also sharing more of their personal data online than ever before. This is shining a spotlight on digital privacy concerns. While control of their data remains crucial, many consumers are willing to share their information for the right incentives, driving loyalty programmes to offer rewards in exchange for personalisation.
Consumers are increasingly comfortable with GenAI
In 2025, AR/VR adoption is stalling, and the utilisation of voice assistants in shopping remains limited. Generative AI is making major inroads in digital commerce, however, as the technology replaces search engines and powers personalised recommendations. Looking forward, agentic AI promises to redefine digital commerce even further by making autonomous purchasing possible.
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Key findings
Background and coverage of the Voice of the Consumer: Digital Shopper Survey
Highlights of the 2025 edition of the Voice of the Consumer: Digital Shopper Survey
YouTube remains the world’s leading social media platform, but TikTok is gaining ground
YouTube and Flipkart encourage Indian content creators to embed shoppable content
WhatsApp remains the world’s most popular messaging platform
Governments are increasingly moving to restrict minors’ social media use
Livestreaming is beginning to catch on outside of its Asia Pacific stronghold
Fashion categories are the most popular in livestreaming, but grocery is not far behind
Lidl becomes the first legacy grocery retailer in Europe to partner with TikTok
Smartphones are increasingly the go-to tool used in pre-purchase research
Smartphones are the most popular tool for foodservice, leisure and travel purchases
Personal recommendations still greatly outweigh influencer endorsements
Asos is redefining fashion marketing through its micro-influencer strategy
Credit and debit cards continue to be consumers’ preferred online payment method
Consumers around the world are warming to the use of digital wallets
Asia Pacific consumers lead the world in digital wallet adoption
Backed by Sea Ltd’s ecosystem, ShopeePay is expanding by building partnerships
Demand for free shipping and returns faces pushback from retailers
Consumer sentiment on free returns appears to be shifting
Mobile app-enabled ordering is critical to foodservice e-commerce success
Uber Eats unveils Live Order Chat feature
Consumers are more willing to share personal data if they are incentivised to do so
In the UAE, Al-Futtaim offers intelligent personalisation with its loyalty programme
Digital shoppers seem less concerned about data privacy than in the past
The share of consumers that are deleting their social media accounts is growing
Consumers continue to weave new technologies into their daily habits
Widespread adoption of AR and VR technology still faces serious challenges
Google Assistant remains the most popular voice assistant globally
Digital shoppers can already see the benefits of generative AI
Google’s integration of Gemini into shopping platform enables AI to buy for shoppers
Recommendations for growth
Questions we are asking
Channels: Helping you understand where and how consumers shop
Digital Shopper
Tracks all sales of goods and services to the public via the internet. Consumer purchases through web platforms are attributed to the country in which the consumer is based, rather than where the merchant is based. Our definition is agnostic as to where the actual payment takes place. If an order is initiated online, we would consider that order to be an e-commerce transaction, even if the order is ultimately paid for in-store, with cash on delivery, by mail via postal cheque, or in person when turning in a ticket and associated payment at a designated ATM or branch facility. Our figures exclude consumer-to-consumer (C2C) and business-to-business (B2B) sales. Business-to-consumer sales (B2C) – in which the business is registered with the government and pays the appropriate taxes – are included. This includes B2C sales on marketplace platforms, which allow many merchants to sell on their website and process the transaction. While both businesses and consumers can sell through marketplaces, only B2C transactions are included in our coverage. Note that online sales from direct selling companies are excluded from our definition. As we are primarily concerned with tracking the importance of the direct selling model (and not where the final sale is made), all sales attributable to a direct selling company will fall into direct selling rather than E-Commerce. Credit or charge card bill payments, mortgages and other loan payments, money transfers, digital person-to-person payments, insurance payments and donations to charities and crowdfunding campaigns are excluded from Euromonitor’s coverage. For C2G transactions, consumer payments made to governments for direct consumption of services and utilities, excluding taxes, fines, and administrative fees, are included. This includes all online purchases made by a consumer to a business for either goods or services regardless of the device (PC, mobile phone, tablet, etc.) used to execute the transaction. It is subdivided into the following eight areas of E-Commerce: Retail, Foodservice, Travel, Mobility, Ticketed Entertainment, Streaming Services, Bill Payments and Other.
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