I love shopping on my smartphone. While I was never big on online shopping, being the busy mom of a one-year-old has me ordering almost all of our Christmas gifts on my phone this year (usually after bedtime). I watch for free-shipping offers and love the option to buy online during my lunch break and pick up in-store after work. I’m also a frequent user of Target Drive Up.
A study by NPD Group shows that this love of mobile shopping is widespread, with more than one in six holiday shoppers in this year’s Holiday Purchase Intentions Survey saying they will use their mobile phone to buy gifts this season. This number more than doubles among Millennial shoppers. While desktop/laptops are still the most used holiday shopping devices, according to data from Adobe Digital Insights, mobile spending is up this holiday season, showing an overall increase in spending of 54 percent year-over-year. Some of this increase is due to shoppers buying via a mobile device and then picking up in-store (up 46 percent year-over-year).
Retailers are paying attention to this trend and working to offer the convenience of online shopping with an in-store feel.
“We’re observing an abundance of ‘hands-free shopping’ at retail this holiday season, the result of increased free shipping offers and the blending of in-store and online shopping capabilities,” said Marshal Cohen, chief industry advisor, The NPD Group, in a press release. “By making purchases on their mobile device while in stores they can continue to shop without the hassle of lugging packages.”
While many consumers are using their mobile phones to make purchases, they are still going out shopping. The study found that half of consumers say simply going shopping during the holidays puts them in the holiday spirt. It also found that shoppers are “relying on in-store displays and signage to learn more about a product before making a holiday purchase.”
I’ll be interested to see how this mobile shopping trend continues to change what stores – specifically those that are primarily brick-and-mortar – offer consumers.