Mobile Commerce Press

Still, shoppers in the millennial generation have yet to be sold on the concept and aren’t yet buying into it.

Social media has been playing an ever growing role in mobile commerce trends when it comes to its impact on consumers as a whole, but when looking at specific demographics, it becomes rapidly clear that millennials aren’t yet all that impressed with what smartphone based shopping has to offer through social platforms.

When it comes to the drivers behind the growth of m-commerce, social media has been highly important.

Brands have been sending a considerable portion of their marketing budgets toward branded content, native advertising and overhauling their mobile apps to improve the experience of shoppers who are continually on the go. That said, there is a considerable difference in the impact of these mobile commerce trends on millennials than there is on shoppers from other age groups. This appears to suggest that the way that millennials want to interact with a brand and the way brands expect them to want to interact with them has not entirely aligned.

Millennial mobile commerce trends show that brands and individuals appear to have different expectations.

Faceook Continues to Push into Mobile Commerce trends The disconnect appears to lie in the place that millennials actually engage with m-commerce. According to recent data from BI Intelligence, consumers in that age group will use those platforms for researching products and services. This appears to be a strong preference over making a purchase through a mobile app.

The BI Intelligence GlobalWebIndex study has indicated that shoppers in the millennial generation will use Twitter, Facebook and other social media outlets for looking into products before making a purchase. However, they do not actually make those purchases over mobile commerce channels.

The mobile commerce trends revealed by the study include the estimate that 40 percent of global consumers between the ages of 16 and 24 years old are looking into products via social media. That said, 30 percent of the general population are doing so. Social media is not behaving as a direct product purchasing referral but is instead providing a means through which consumers can educate themselves. Brands that want to encourage purchasing may not find that millennial shoppers are buying through the same platforms they use for their product research, but they will still need to maintain a solid presence over those channels if they want to appeal to those consumers, with Facebook providing the most important influence over shopper decision making.

Recent research has revealed that the use of a hands-free device doesn’t make smartphone use safer behind the wheel.

The results of a new research study out of the U.K. have revealed that distracted driving is just as much of a problem among people who are behind the wheel with a hands-free device as it is when they’re holding a handset.

The study was conducted by the University of Sussex and involved the participation of 60 drivers.

The drivers were asked to take part in a series of different phone conversations. Sometimes there were very simple questions asked to the drivers during those discussions, such as “Where did you leave the blue file?”. What the research showed was that at times when the drivers were asked questions such as that one, the focus of the brain would shift onto an area of the road that was four times smaller than it had previously been. When the driver was thinking about the answer to the question, the outcome was a measurably slower reaction time. In fact, the distracted driving statistic changed by nearly a full second longer than their normal driving skills.

This mean that distracted driving isn’t necessarily based on the nature of the device as much as the talking itself.

Distracted driving handset and hands free car

The drivers who were paying attention to a mobile phone conversation – regardless of the mobile device – had a reaction time that was slower by nearly a second. According to Dr. Hole, the study’s lead author, “Our study adds to a mounting body of research showing that both hand-held and hands-free phones are dangerously distracting for drivers.” He added that “The only ‘safe’ phone in a car is one that’s switched off.”

Currently, the law in many areas that do not allow handsets to be used while behind the wheel are suggesting that by opting for hands-free devices, the driver has made the safer choice. However, according to Dr. Hole, that is hardly the case.

Equally, the study’s author admits that this issue of distracted driving regardless of the type of mobile device actually used becomes quite a struggle in terms of enforceability. “It’s very difficult for the police to tell if someone’s using a hands free phone,” he explained. However, he believes that the laws should be altered in order to make sure drivers understand that they’re not necessarily being safe by using any mobile devices while behind the wheel, regardless of whether or not they’re holding them in their hands.

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Mobile commerce trends show increasing reliance on social media