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Hispanic Consumers Embrace Social Media, Mobile

Hispanic consumers are outpacing non-Hispanics in their adoption of mobile, social and online sources for local shopping, according to a recent study.

Nearly a quarter (23.6%) of Hispanic consumers reported that they use tablets for local shopping, compared with 15.5% of non-Hispanics, according to BIA/Kelsey's Consumer Commerce Monitor study.

Nearly half (48.5%) of Hispanic consumers use mobile devices for local shopping, compared with 32% of non-Hispanics. Among mobile Hispanic consumers, 52.5% report using their tablets and 42.5% report using their smartphones daily for local shopping.   

How the Hispanic consumer shops will affect how a local business advertises and builds loyalty with this community, says Celine Matthiessen, VP analysis and insights at Chantilly, Va.-based BIA/Kelsey. 

"An integrated social, mobile and loyalty strategy will be a necessity to attract this demographic, as Hispanic consumers are very loyal to local businesses,” Matthiessen says in a release. “Hispanic respondents to the CCM study reported that they supported an average of six businesses by becoming a fan or follower or liking a local business."

BIA/Kelsey defines local shopping as any stage of the purchase funnel, from awareness through research, to transacting for products or services locally (within a 25-mile radius of your primary residence). The firm's definition of local products and services includes items such as groceries, restaurants, drugstore items, gasoline and other high-frequency purchases.

Hispanic and non-Hispanic consumers rely more on search engines than mobile apps for local shopping. Sixty-one percent of Hispanic consumers and 69% of non-Hispanics reported that they "mostly use search engines" on a tablet or smartphone for local shopping.

While their mobile app usage is significantly lower than their use of search engines, Hispanics rely more on mobile apps for local shopping than non-Hispanics, by nearly two to one. Seventeen percent of Hispanic consumers reported that they "mostly use apps" on a tablet or smartphone for local shopping, compared with 9% for non-Hispanics. In addition, Hispanic consumers reported using 5.1 mobile apps, on average, for daily shopping, compared with 2.7 apps for non-Hispanic consumers.

When using social media for local shopping, Hispanic consumers index higher than non-Hispanics on all social media networks, except Facebook, with 61% of Hispanics and 67% of non-Hispanics reporting that they use Facebook for local shopping. Other social networks used for local shopping include: YouTube: 17.7% by Hispanics; 10.3% by non-Hispanics; Yahoo: 16.8% by Hispanics; 16.4% by non-Hispanics; Google+: 11.9% by Hispanics; 10.8% by non-Hispanics and Twitter: 11.1% by Hispanics; 6.7% by non-Hispanics.

Despite their heavy social media use, 83.2% of Hispanic consumers list family and friends as their most trustworthy source for local shopping information. 

"Woman looking at phone" photo from Shutterstock.

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