Behavioral Trends For Indecisive Consumers Show Longer Path To Purchase

Impulse buys are out -- and buying from local shops is in.

Rakuten Marketing analyzed data across its companies and found that 69% of shoppers in the U.S. and in the UK are not prepared to make spontaneous decisions in terms of the gifts to buy, making the path to purchase potentially longer than expected. Globally, that number jumps to 71%.

The research examines the habits of millions of shoppers worldwide to help marketers better understand the behavioral patterns behind annual holiday spending.

The study analyzed various behavior patterns. For example, 63% of Gen Z consumers want to see real people -- not celebrities -- in ads.

About 88% of women said influencers matter, and their views are more important than friends and family.

Similar to the data from Adobe, smartphones are the preferred device to shop online, compared with tablets. Conversions on smartphones are forecast to rise 52% compared with the holiday season in 2017. Revenue will be up a whopping 65%.

The report also shows American shoppers tend to buy slightly later in the year, due to Thanksgiving, Black Friday and Cyber Monday, versus early-November holidays, like Single’s Day and Click Frenzy, that are popular elsewhere in the world.

These forecasts follow notable trends in consumer-shopping patterns in 2017 compared with 2016. Some include a 17% increase in consumer purchases; 24% increase in revenue; and an average order value increase by 12% on smartphones, 16% on tablets and 4% on desktops.

To keep up with consumers, marketers spent more.

In 2017, compared with 2016, total ad spend by marketers rose 18% year-on-year. They spent 13% more on retargeting campaigns, 70% more on social campaigns, 39% more on prospecting, and 13% more on mobile campaigns.

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