5 key stats about what convenience means in 2025

Convenience matters, but today's cost-conscious consumers demand quality too. This shift forces marketers to rethink convenience's role in purchase decisions.

Both online and physical retailers prioritize seamless experiences, but with different challenges. Brick-and-mortar stores struggle to deliver convenience, while ecommerce faces growing price sensitivity.

Here are five key stats that reveal how consumers view convenience in 2025.

1. Reliability means more to consumers than convenience

Some 61% of worldwide consumers cite trust in the information provided as their top priority when interacting with companies, according to an October 2024 report from Qualtrics XM Institute.

• Some 46% of consumers said completing the interaction quickly was their top priority, while 44% said convenience.

Another interesting stat: US consumers find on-time delivery more important than speedy delivery, according to a July 2024 report from McKinsey. Consumers would rather wait up to a week for on-time delivery than have a delivery come late, per the report.

2. Price is king, but not at the expense of convenience

Some 67% of global consumers are likely to switch to a new brand because it has a lower price, according to data from NIQ.

• Still, 55% of global consumers are likely to spend more on commerce formats that are convenient to use, per NIQ.
• Discount retail channel is the third-fastest growing retail channel, rising 9.2% YoY globally, per NIQ.

Additionally, 69% of US digital grocery buyers say price is most important to them when choosing an online grocery service, compared with 48% citing delivery speed.

3. Patience is a growing virtue for many consumers

Consumers ranked speed their most important priority for delivery in 2022, according to McKinsey's July 2024 "Voice of Consumer Survey." But, in 2024, speed fell to the fifth most important delivery priority for consumers.

• The cost of delivery rose to the top of consumer priorities, per the survey.

With less of an emphasis on speed, 90% of consumers are willing to wait at least two or three days for delivery, according to McKinsey.

4. Physical stores struggle against digital expectations

Last October, 7-Eleven's parent said it would close almost 450 underperforming stores.

• Among the factors it cited for a decline in traffic were more consumers living paycheck-to-check, a reduction in low-income Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits, and a growth in delivery.

Convenience stores and pharmacy chains are facing an identity crisis.

"Consumer buying preferences are shifting and the in-store customer experience is just getting worse, and those two things are kind of attached at the hip," said our analyst Rajiv Leventhal on an episode of "Behind the Numbers." "Many people are turning to online merchants for their everyday convenience items. And this has really made it difficult for pharmacy chains to turn enough of a profit at the front of the store. They're experiencing lesser foot traffic."

5. Destination retail replaces neighborhood convenience

In Q3 2019, 26.7% of visitors to Trader Joe's lived at least seven miles away, according to data from Placer.ai. In Q3 2024, that number rose to 28.8%.

• Sprouts Farmers Market and Great Wall Supermarket also saw an increase of multiple percentage points in visitors from farther away in Q3 2024.

"However you look at it, convenience is not the most important thing," said Ethan Chernofsky, senior vice president of marketing at Placer.ai, in an EMARKETER webinar. "Product quality, experience, value are all superior, or all have at least a superior role in this case."

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