Consumers have been increasingly buying from online stores and marketplaces and opting less for physical stores, according to the CX Trends 2025 survey, carried out by Octadesk, LWSA's customer service platform, in partnership with Opinion Box.
According to the survey, 64% of respondents revealed a preference for physical stores – 3 percentage points less than the figure found in last year's edition of the same study. Meanwhile, 77% of consumers searched for purchases on websites and online stores. Furthermore, among those surveyed, 43% still said they made purchases through store apps and 15% said they bought through social networks, such as WhatsApp and Instagram.
Convenience and cost drive this consumer preference for online. According to the study, among the reasons for online shopping are free shipping (62%), quality of product or service (56%) and low price (53%). The main purchasing channels include online stores (68%), marketplaces (66%), WhatsApp (30%) and Instagram (28%).
Message personalization influences purchases
In addition to free shipping and convenience, hyper-personalization and artificial intelligence (AI) influence 6 out of 10 purchasing decisions for products or services. In the last 12 months, 68% of consumers highlighted personalization in customer service as a decision factor, while 50% indicated that they had already experienced AI when making their purchases – an increase of 8 percentage points compared to the previous year.
Furthermore, 35% of respondents said they had experienced personalized recommendations through AI when purchasing products or hiring services. “Today, in addition to quality or efficiency, consumers want an experience that understands and connects with their needs. Technology should be used as an ally to enhance human service, not replace it. This combination creates an experience that truly makes a difference for the customer and brings an opportunity for companies to increase revenue,” says Rodrigo Ricco, Founder and CEO of Octadesk.
CX Trends 2025 was conducted by Octadesk in partnership with Opinion Box, supported by Vindi, Locaweb, Moskit, Bling and KingHost, and interviewed more than 2,000 online consumers over the age of 16 from all over Brazil and from all social classes. The survey's margin of error is 2.2 percentage points. To access the full report,Click here.
