As we round off the long weekend of deals with Cyber Monday, we have officially started the holiday season which can account for 20-40% of retailer's annual sales. This year, the NRF has estimated an increase of 4.1% of holiday sales to the tune of $586.1 billion with projections of $2 billion in online sales today in the US and Europe alone.
But retailers can't forget the importance of mobile. 16% of consumers are estimated to shop on their mobiles over the holiday season, up from 13% in 2011. As mobile becomes even more of a keystone in holiday campaigns and shopping, it's import to understand how consumers are using their devices.
The IAB in partnership with Prosper Mobile Insights released its second annual Mobile Shoppers study to show where mobile shopping hotspots are around the US as well as how consumers are influenced by apps and digital coupons.
In the handy infographic below, it shows the top three cities for mobile shopping are Houston, Seattle and San Francisco. other interesting facts include:
- In 2012, 68% of Americans owned a smartphone/ tablet (up from 57% percent in 2011)
- More than 80% of smartphone owners accessed retailer websites or apps on their device
- Not surprisingly, smartphone shoppers tend to be younger than those who shop on their desktops and are evenly split between males and females
- Over half of smartphone owners, and nearly 30 percent of tablet owners, have used their devices in a store in the past three months
- Even though penetration rate of QR code usage by consumers is quite low, nearly half of US consumers have QR readers on their devices.
These are some great numbers to bring to the table for 2013 for those companies still lagging behind on their mobile strategy.
But please do not take this study as a proof point for more QR codes on the sides of buses and on billboards. Until you know how to use them, please don't.
Reader comments (6)
Head of Online at Sodexo Prestige
10:11AM on 27th November 2012
Hi Heather, I'm a little bit confused. The attention grabbing headline informs us that "80% of smartphone owners shop on their device", but the second paragraph tells us "16% of consumers are estimated to shop on their mobiles". Which is it?
I'm guessing the latter, which is not exactly a key stone quantity.
Head of Digital at QualitySolicitors
1:33PM on 27th November 2012
@Andrew - one stat is based specifically on the holiday period (16%) and the other is based on an IAB study... the reality is probably somewhere in between...
Head of Online at Sodexo Prestige
1:45PM on 27th November 2012
Thanks Depesh. It's a surprisingly large discrepancy, but I imagine you're right about the reality. Interesting stuff.
Editorial Director at Econsultancy
5:34PM on 27th November 2012
Actually it's 80% of smartphone owners that shop on their phones while the other number is how many consumers are shopping using their phones during the holidays. You have to then account for how many consumers have smartphones. The numbers are correct but are looking at different segments.
Digital Marketing Manager at Piece of Cake
7:41PM on 11th December 2012
The issue with researches like this one is that they think that consumer behaviour changes depending on the device that they use to access the content in discussion.
I strongly believe that there must be AT LEAST 3 different segments when it comes to such research:
1) Desktop/laptop (it's the same obviously) users
2) Users with mobile or tables on a wifi
3) Users outside their homes or offices that access websites & content with slower mobile/wireless access such as 3G or 4G or edge or whatever.
Obviously, one difference is the screen size, resolution and method of interaction (mouse, keyboard or just fingers), the other significant difference is the downloading time & speed that contribute immensely to the whole experience. Users know that even 3G can be slow and usually don't request a lot of data or big & complicated pages when we are outside so the whole behaviour should be totally different.
12:27PM on 13th December 2012
Here u have shared the biographic of smartphone and how much people are using this technology in which country? Very nice summarized information but l am little bit confused 80% of smartphone owners shop on their device in the comparison of next paragraph u said 16% of consumers are estimated to shop on their mobiles.Please explain it dude!
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