This weekend I had some great conversations with groups of people. Lots of catch-up chat, but people were also talking about shopping. A few things jumped out at me:

• Amazon – For years, I’ve heard people in social settings talk about how they find everything they need on Amazon. But this weekend, no one mentioned shopping at Amazon. Amazon is still a major online retailer and I’m sure many of these people still shop there regularly, but what they wanted to talk about was smaller merchants they’d found online.
• Specific items – People mentioned spending time researching and looking for specific items.
• Patience – When they found exactly what they were looking for, they were patient. The specific item was more important than finding something that could be delivered in a day or two.
• Wardrobe – Working from home has changed how people dress and how they think about their wardrobe. Many don’t think they’ll go back to having a work wardrobe and a nonwork wardrobe.

My “study” has a super-small sample size and isn’t scientific at all, but it got me thinking. Delivery speed and low cost have dominated how consumers shop for a long time, but this may be starting to change. So might how we outfit ourselves. Companies set dress codes and people adhered to those policies, which informed how and where they bought clothes. Now, people are setting their own individual dress codes and focusing on what matters to them.

I think we’re starting to see (or maybe I’m just noticing) a shift in the way consumers shop and why they shop. I’ll be watching this more closely. If this is a trend that continues, it could have a major impact on e-commerce and retail.