While there are lots of holiday shopping forecasts coming out these
days, the messages around mobile commerce all are about the same: most consumers will be going to stores to shop.
Of course, this hardly means mobile will not play a prominent role in the
shopping process and purchase decisions. It’s just that people still want to experience the store to see and touch the products before buying.
Total holiday spending this year is
projected to increase 13 percent to $1,299, according to Deloitte’s new 2014 holiday shopping study, which comprised a survey of 5,000 U.S. consumers.
But deep inside the annual shopping
forecast is an interesting bit of insight about how consumers will use their smartphones this time around.
Almost three quarters (72%) of consumers will use their smartphone for
shopping but not only to make an online purchase. Here’s what they plan to use their phones for:
- 58% -- Get store location
- 52% -- Check, compare prices
- 48% --
Shop, browse online
- 47% -- Get product information
- 44% -- Read reviews
- 41% -- Check product availability
- 41% -- Get, use discounts, coupons, sales
information
- 36% -- Access social networks
- 35% -- Make a purchase online
- 32% -- Get text messages or exclusive deals from retailers
- 31% -- Scan barcodes to find
more product information
One of my favorite aspects of the regular Deloitte research reports is that they look beyond actual mobile commerce transactions and deal with the
overall mobile influence on sales.
In this study, the survey showed that digital devices will influence half of sales, translated to $345 billion of in-store retail sales.
It also
found that smartphone owners will spend 27% more than non-smartphone owners on gifts.
Retailers may not see shoppers coming to their stores and then buying online from their phone.
But
those shoppers will be reaching for their phones every step along the way
____________________________
Interested in beacons? Learn all about them and how they are being
used at the MediaPost conference on beacons, Nov. 3 in New York (IoT:
Beacons).