Article

7min read

From Search to Checkout: 10 Data-Driven E-commerce Trends for 2025 

E-commerce has completely changed the way shoppers interact with their favorite brands.

From the continued rise of mobile commerce to virtual-reality try-on tools and AI customer service, some consumer trends have proven to be evergreen while others fall out of fashion in a season. As e-commerce marketers, it can be hard to know when to chase a trend or stick to being consistent. 

To help you better understand the mind of today’s consumers, we’ve broken down 10 key insights for e-commerce from our 2025 global report. Based on feedback from 4,000 consumers across the U.S., U.K., France, Italy, and Australia, this snapshot reveals how people discover new products, engage with AI, make purchase decisions, and much more.

1. Google Search is the first place for discovery

When it comes to starting an online shopping journey, Google Search is still king. Nearly two-thirds (63%) of global shoppers begin their hunt for a new product or service with a Google search. 

This underscores the ongoing importance of SEO for e-commerce brands. If your product pages aren’t optimized, you risk missing out on a massive audience at the very first step of their journey.

2. Mobile takes over, but desktop still matters

By the end of 2024, smartphones accounted for nearly 80% of global retail site traffic and over two-thirds of online orders. Mobile is now the primary device for browsing and purchasing in categories like clothing, cosmetics, and entertainment. 

However, desktop still plays a significant role in sectors such as travel and utilities, especially among older generations. Brands should continue to prioritize mobile-first design, but not neglect the desktop experience—especially for high-consideration purchases.

3. Millennials vs. Gen Z: Mobile app habits

Generational differences are shaping the future of e-commerce. For Gen Z, mobile apps are the second most popular starting point for shopping (48%), just behind Google. Millennials, on the other hand, split their preference between apps and brand websites (both at 35%). This means younger shoppers are more likely to use apps for discovery, while Millennials are equally comfortable with apps and direct website visits. 

Brands need more than just a mobile presence to capture Gen Z’s attention. They need apps built for exploration, speed, and flexibility. With Feature Experimentation and Rollouts from AB Tasty, teams can continuously test and optimize in-app experiences without a full redeploy, ensuring their app evolves alongside user expectations.

4. Comparison shoppers lead the pack

Not all online shoppers are the same. Our research found that the most common shopper persona is “comparison-oriented”—30% of respondents compare multiple products before making a purchase. Only 11% identify as “speedy” shoppers who want to check out as quickly as possible. The rest fall somewhere in between, with 21% being “review-oriented,” 20% “confident,” and 18% “detail-oriented.” This diversity highlights the need for flexible site experiences that cater to different decision-making styles.

If one size doesn’t fit all, then understanding your audience is the first step to building experiences that truly convert.

5. Reviews are more influential than discounts or brand names

When it comes to influencing purchase decisions, high-quality reviews top the list globally. Shoppers trust peer validation more than discounts, convenience, or even brand names. Written testimonials and customer photos are especially valued, providing the authenticity and detail shoppers crave. 

Make sure your reviews are visible, filterable, and packed with real customer insights to boost trust and conversions.

E-commerce moves fast. Get the insights that help you move faster. Download the 2025 report now.

6. The pop-up problem hurting conversions

Think you’re converting more by hitting new visitors with an email sign-up pop-up right away? Think again.

Too many pop-ups are the number one frustration for online shoppers worldwide, followed closely by slow-loading websites and difficulty finding products. While pop-ups can be effective for capturing leads or promoting offers, overuse can drive customers away. Use them strategically and ensure your site is fast and easy to navigate to keep shoppers engaged.

7. Loyalty is the key to better personalization

Personalization is more than just a buzzword—it’s a key driver of customer satisfaction and loyalty. The top way to make online shopping feel more personal, according to 35% of respondents, is by rewarding brand loyalty. Remembering preferences and suggesting relevant products also rank highly. 

Brands that recognize and reward repeat customers with exclusive perks or early access to new products can turn shoppers into advocates.

8. AI adoption is growing, especially among younger shoppers

AI-powered tools like chatbots and virtual assistants are gaining traction, but there’s still room for improvement. Just under a quarter (23%) of shoppers have used AI tools and found them helpful, while 32% haven’t tried them but are open to it. Younger generations are more receptive: 32% of Gen Z and 30% of Millennials found AI tools helpful, compared to just 13% of Baby Boomers. 

To win over skeptics, brands need to ensure AI support is fast, relevant, and seamlessly integrated with human assistance.

9. Shoppers just want frictionless experiences

When asked what would most improve their online shopping experience, the top answer was simple: removing frustrations like pop-ups, bugs, and broken pages. Tracking shipping, improving product search, and speeding up the shopping process were also highly valued. 

Before investing in flashy features, brands should focus on getting the basics right—smooth, intuitive journeys are what keep customers coming back.

10. The gap between personalization and perception

Personalization is supposed to make shoppers feel seen—but only 1 in 10 consumers say their favorite brands truly “get” them. In fact, the most common answer was “somewhat,” as 39% of respondents said the messages and offers they receive are hit or miss. Another 34% said brands mostly deliver relevant content, but not always. For the majority, the digital experience feels inconsistent. 

When personalization doesn’t land, it can come off as surface-level or even off-putting. The takeaway? Personalization isn’t just about using data—it’s about using it meaningfully, so relevance feels intentional, not accidental.

Conclusion

The bar for digital shopping experiences keeps rising, and today’s consumers are quicker than ever to click away when expectations aren’t met.

From discovery to checkout, each step in the customer journey has the potential to shape customer loyalty and long-term value. Our 2025 E-commerce Consumer report dives even deeper into generational trends, regional differences, and actionable strategies for optimizing your digital experience.

Ready to future-proof your e-commerce strategy? Download our report “Decoding Online Shopping: Consumer Trends for E-commerce in 2025” now.

Subscribe to
our Newsletter

bloc Newsletter EN

We will process and store your personal data to send you communications as described in our  Privacy Policy.

Article

5min read

Why AB Tasty Delivers 4x Faster

Hello! I’m Léo, Senior Product Manager at AB Tasty. I’m in charge of AB Tasty’s JavaScript tag that is currently running on thousands of websites around the world. As you can guess, my roadmap is full of topics around data collection, privacy, and… performance.

It’s why I’m so excited to give an update on our performance, and how we’ve worked hard to be the best. We’re now providing loading times up to 4 faster than other solutions on the market. 

In a world where every second counts, slow-loading pages are the fast track to lost revenue. At AB Tasty, we know that speed isn’t just about convenience; it’s about delivering the smooth, reliable experience that today’s consumers expect. 

That’s why we’re thrilled to be recognized by ThirdPartyWeb.today for having one of the lowest impacts on web performance among top experimentation and personalization platforms. This acknowledgment affirms our commitment to speed, scalability, and brand satisfaction.

Script execution time 2025 AB Tasty

Source: www.ThirdPartyWeb.today, June 2025

But what does this actually mean for brands using AB Tasty?

Let’s dive into how prioritizing performance can improve your SERP rankings, customer experience (CX), and overall campaign effectiveness.

Why Web Performance Impacts Your Bottom Line

Imagine clicking on a page that seems to take forever to load. Chances are, you’d be out of there faster than you could say “conversion rate.” And you wouldn’t be alone: slow page load times can lead to increased bounce rates, missed opportunities, and, ultimately, frustrated visitors.

Good performance translates into smoother customer journeys, which leads to better engagement and, most importantly, higher conversion rates.

ThirdPartyWeb.today: The Performance Benchmark 

ThirdPartyWeb.today is an independent performance data visualization initiative that analyzes the impact of various platforms on page speed. It ranks tools according to their performance cost, drawing data from nearly 4 million websites to create an unbiased performance benchmark. For brands aiming to deliver a seamless experience without sacrificing speed, ThirdPartyWeb.today provides a reliable guide for evaluating the performance impact of their tools.

Being recognized as one of the most performance-friendly Experience Optimization platforms by ThirdPartyWeb.today means our clients know they’re partnering with a technology designed with speed in mind.

What Makes AB Tasty the Fastest?

Our tech teams have worked tirelessly to make AB Tasty not only an intuitive experimentation and personalization platform, but one that prioritizes high performance. Here’s a quick look at the innovations that make AB Tasty so fast and reliable:

  1. Modular Architecture with Innovative Dynamic Importing and Smart Caching Technology
    Our platform is built with a modular architecture, where only essential code is loaded for each campaign. This keeps file sizes lean, reducing load time and resource consumption. Our proprietary smart caching technology ensures that visitors only need to load the data they haven’t accessed before. By minimizing redundant data calls, we significantly reduce load times across all devices. We also provide worldwide API endpoints and have a global CDN presence with multiple Edge locations and regional Edge caches for fast response times no matter where you and your site visitors are.

  2. Performance Center
    AB Tasty’s dedicated Performance Center allows you to monitor your campaign performance in real-time. This tool gives you full transparency into what’s happening behind the scenes, so you can make adjustments as needed to keep things running smoothly. It provides recommendations to help you monitor and improve tag weight. Learn all about it here.


  3. Single-Page Application (SPA) Compatibility
    AB Tasty’s platform is SPA-compatible without requiring custom code, making it easier for developers to integrate AB Tasty into their tech stack. AB Tasty is running on a native Vanilla TypeScript framework. Our tag is compatible with modern JS frameworks, including React, Angular, Vue, Meteor or Ember. The tag is unique for all environments and doesn’t require any additional implementation. Many of our customers have left their previous provider due to challenges with SPA pages. In these tools, changes are often not “sticky” or flicker when there is a dynamic content load. SPA tests in these environments often require custom code for each test, which makes testing more complicated and less user-friendly.

  4. Flicker-Free Experiences
    AB Tasty’s tag uses a blended approach of both synchronous and asynchronous scripts to eliminate flicker, while maintaining optimised performance. Other solutions will prescribe “anti-flicker” snippets to eliminate flicker, which is not a recommended practice. It means hiding the body’s content while the tag loads, which ultimately delays the rendering of the site. This causes a worse user experience, increases your Largest Contentful Paint (LCP) metric, and may ultimately lead to increased bounce rates and decreased conversions. In contrast, AB Tasty’s synchronous tag uses 3kb of render-blocking to allow the tag to execute quickly before the page loads, as opposed to blocking the visibility of the page for the full package size.

And that translates to…

First loading time < 100ms
Caching loading time < 10ms
Execution time < 500 milliseconds
Minimal Lighthouse Core Web Vitals impact

Cheers to Our Product and Tech Teams

This wouldn’t be possible without the dedication of our Product and Tech teams (thanks team!). We’ve dared to innovate, pushing the limits of what’s possible with web performance in the experimentation and personalization space.

The Bottom Line

When brands choose AB Tasty, they’re choosing a platform that prioritizes both innovation and performance. By minimizing impact on web performance, we’re helping brands deliver faster, better experiences that delight customers and drive results.

Curious to learn more about? Contact us today to discover what else sets us apart.