Where Will You be Shopping This Holiday Season? Chances Are it Won't be Just Amazon
Online marketplaces such as eBay (EBAY) - Get Report , Amazon (AMZN) - Get Report , AliExpress (BABA) - Get Report and Flipkart appear to be the preferred shopping destination for online buyers, according to a recent survey. While direct sales from retailer's sites are still growing, the preference for more than half of online shoppers are online marketplaces, according to Pitney Bowes (PBI) - Get Report Global Online Shopping Survey. The company's President of Global Ecommerce, Lila Snyder, says the biggest reasons for online marketplace shopping are better deals and product assortment. And, shoppers aren't just buying from domestic marketplaces either, two-thirds of shoppers are buying from other countries. Snyder attributes this to global travelers who may visit a bricks and mortar location while on vacation who then order more products from those retailers when they return to their home countries. Mobile devices are playing a bigger role in the buying experience, but while shoppers may browse on their mobile devices, they're still hesitant to press the buy button. Snyder says retailer and marketplace mobile sites are still a challenge to navigate. The largest pain points for online shoppers are ones we've been hearing for years...shipping and returns. Snyder is optimistic that this holiday season buyers will have a better experience on those two fronts than they did during last year's holiday season. TheStreet's Ruben Ramirez reports from Wall Street.









