Mollie’s new report shows how growth mindset may boost e-commerce merchants’ competitive edge

While profits in many sectors plummeted during lockdown last year, some other segments noted an unprecedented surge in interest. E-commerce is one such sector, which performed well in 2020. A new research by the online payment service provider Mollie sheds some light on how harbouring a growth mindset delivered a competitive edge for e-commerce merchants. Here are some notable takeaways from the new report called Growth mindset merchants: outmanoeuvring, outcompeting, and outperforming. 

Growth mindset equalled more sales and lower revenue decline

The new report by Amsterdam-based Mollie is based on a survey, which was undertaken by Coleman Parkes. The sample size was 2,500 merchants across five European countries, 500 from Belgium, Germany, France, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom. Within each of these countries, 100 were drawn from each of the following sectors: groceries/FMCG, hospitality/food delivery, home/hobbies/lifestyle, clothing and apparel, and consumer electronics. Across Europe, 500 merchants were surveyed in each sector.

The first and foremost insight from the survey was that adopting a growth mindset gives e-commerce merchants a competitive edge. The report states that European merchants that approach with a growth mindset generate an average of 17  per cent more annual revenue from e-commerce over fixed mindset merchants. Additionally, growth mindset adoption helped merchants suffer lower revenue declines compared with their fixed mindset competitors during the first wave of COVID-19.

As per the report, about three in ten (28  per cent ) growth mindset merchants reported an increase in monthly sales during the pandemic versus two in ten (21  per cent ) of fixed mindset merchants, when compared with the same months in 2019.

Growth mindset merchants are more international

Growth mindset merchants tend to be more optimistic and ambitious about revenue growth, the study reveals. Around 93 per cent of growth mindset merchants expect to grow online revenues in the next 12 months, compared to 83 per cent of fixed mindset merchants. Additionally, the same group are also most likely to be more international in their approach. About 46 per cent of fixed mindset merchants are completely focused domestically, compared to 38 per cent of growth mindset merchants. Hence, growth mindset merchants are almost twice as likely to sell online globally than their fixed mindset counterparts.

Growth mindset merchants also offer more ways to pay and experience lower cart abandonment rates. The latter is being attributed to them tracking cart abandonment and actually addressing the root causes. What sets growth mindset merchants apart from fixed mindset merchants is that they are more international, offer more relevant ways to pay, and are more focused on finding ways to optimise their conversion.

The new report by Mollie outlines numerous ways in which adopting a growth mindset may give e-commerce merchants a competitive edge. The entire report can be downloaded from Mollie’s website.