Rail commuters are key online shoppers says new study

By

Sandra Halliday

Published
Nov 30, 2018

Fashion retailers need to target rail commuters and ensure their sites are mobile optimised or they have strong apps so that they can make shopping while on the train as easy as possible.

That’s the conclusion after a new report showed the value of on-train commuter commerce reached £2.6 billion last year, and is predicted to grow by 75% to reach £4.6 billion by 2022 as British commuters use the downtime while travelling to and from work to shop, shop, shop.

More powerful smartphones and improvements in connectivity mean “the on-train commute is a valuable time for commuters to shop due to convenience, and an important space for retailers and brands to influence an economically important consumer group,” KBH On-Train Media and Retail Economics said in their joint study.

It seems that as many as 51% of rail commuters shop while they travel with a quarter shopping because of the convenience of ‘free-time’.

In fact, £1 in every £25 of total online retail spend is carried out by commuters while travelling by train with the average value of each transaction being £28.19, which equates to £4.87 every day they commute. This is projected to grow by just over 12% annually on average over the next four years. 

The researchers also said that rail commuters make up 9% of the adult population, but they contributed 11% of total spending, meaning they account for a greater spend per capita than the average UK household, giving them a disproportionate economic importance. The research suggests rail commuters contributed £140.4 billion to the UK economy last year across all areas of consumer spending.

Commuters were asked what motivated them to shop online on trains and found a mixture of factors such as ‘free time’ (26%), ‘convenience’ (25%), ‘boredom’ (17%), ‘don’t feel time-pressured’ (13%), and ‘enjoy browsing for products while on the train’ (11%). 

The most popular time for on-train shopping is the evening commute, between 16:00 to 20:00 (33% shop then). The second most popular time is the morning rush hour between 06:00 and 10:00, when 27% are shopping.
 
As mentioned, 51% of commuters shop online while they travel and 15% of these buy on the train more than once a week.

KBH MD Ian Reynolds said: “The on-train audience is an economic powerhouse, punching way above its weight in terms of spend per capita. All the evidence points unerringly to the fact that successfully capturing the rail commuter market will play a significant part in retailer growth.
 
“Our respondents agreed that they would shop more frequently on the train if there was better connectivity (33%). Likewise, they want to see more retailers prioritise the mobile optimisation of sites and apps to make the shopping experience more seamless.”