By Rieva Lesonsky
If you’re a retailer or e-tailer getting ready for the holiday shopping season, know this: Shoppers are going mobile this year. In Apigee’s 2012 Holiday Shopping Survey, more than half (57 percent) of mobile app users say they are considering purchasing their holiday gifts on a mobile device. Books, electronics, toys and apparel are among the top purchases users plan to make via mobile.
If your store doesn’t have a mobile shopping app, it could hurt you. More than half (54 percent) of respondents say stores that don’t have a mobile shopping app mean negative consequences for them, including:
- I could waste a trip to the store looking for items they don’t carry – 30 percent
- I could lose out on the best deals the store offers – 25 percent
- It makes me think the retailer is old-fashioned – 19 percent
- I could lose time – 17 percent
- I could lose money – 12 percent
- It could hurt my loyalty to the store – 7 percent
Shoppers aged 18 to 34 and male shoppers were more likely than older shoppers or women to feel the lack of a mobile app would hurt their shopping experience.
Why do shoppers love mobile shopping so much? The top benefits respondents cited were:
- Browsing for deals wherever you are – 50 percent
- Performing price comparisons inside a store – 48 percent
- Using a mobile device to find a retail store – 40 percent
- Redeeming electronic coupons – 38 percent
- Secretly shopping without a spouse/significant other knowing – 25 percent
- Buying embarrassing or personal items without using a work computer – 14 percent
- Sneaking shopping time in at work – 12 percent
If you hurry, there’s still time to get your ecommerce site or store set with mobile apps that can tell shoppers if items are in stock, make it easy to browse online on a mobile device and simplify shopping. At the very least, make sure your users’ online shopping experience is mobile-friendly, even if you can’t create a dedicated app.
Image by Flickr user Brad Flickinger (Creative Commons)
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Tags: ecommerce, Marketing, mobile marketing, small business, Technology, Web Design
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