It’s no secret that in 2017 retailers are facing an increasingly challenging marketplace, it’s one of the most competitive environments in decades with the continuing shift in customer preferences towards online shopping, an unforgiving global marketplace that demands unprecedented technological sophistication some retailers are being confronted with threats to their very existence, new kinds of competitors seem to pop up out of nowhere, further altering customer expectations and disrupting any hoped-for status quo.

Via 6 continents Shopper feedback, nearly 25,000 online shoppers, in 29 territories and 11 different product categories, Their answers can help retailers to solve the puzzle of where they should invest not only to survive but thrive in the years:

• 11% are shopping more frequently with their smartphone while 9% with a tablet.
• 40%  chose screen size as the greatest obstacle to shopping with the mobile, with 26% saying that another obstacle was that mobile sites are simply not easy to use.
• Over than 1/3 of U.S. respondents said that they use their mobile devices for purchasing, up from previous surveys.
• in China, most brands and retailers choose to integrate within WeChat’s mobile wallet environment -which has more than 750 million monthly active users.
• 35% said that the mobile/smartphone will become their main purchasing tool, so invest in the mobile site, not the mobile app.
• 56% of global online shoppers use Amazon.
• 39% use social networks to get inspiration for purchases.
• 65% fear their personal information being hacked.
• 61% are loyal – they know what they like and buy it most often, while 39% like to try something new.
• 59% want an inviting ambiance when they shop.
• 31% of jewelry and watch buyers worry that some products sold online aren’t genuine.
• 16% own a wearable device that tracks or monitors health – and 31% plan to in the future.

A Graph Shows The Top 10 Investment Areas For Retailers, 2017.