IBM report predicts that mobile traffic will comprise more than 50% of all e-commerce traffic during Black Friday
Many retailers are expected to see a significant increase in mobile shopping during Black Friday this year. IBM has released the latest edition of its Holiday Benchmark Data report, suggesting that mobile traffic will comprise more than 50% of all e-commerce traffic retailers see during the holiday season. Black Friday has been has long been a very important holiday for retailers, but other shopping days have begun to prove more successful, such as Cyber Monday and, more recently, Thanksgiving Day.
Consumers are showing strong interest in mobile commerce
More consumers are beginning to show interest in mobile commerce, believing this to be a convenient and easy way to get their shopping done. According to IBM, many consumers are likely to use their mobile devices to shop around for products that they may be interested in. Retailers may also be able to engage mobile consumers more effectively, as they can shop at any time they want, rather than have to visit a physical store.
Retailers could find more success by engaging mobile consumers
Retailers expecting to see good results during the holiday season may have to ensure that they are prepared to serve mobile consumers. These consumers will be using a range of solutions when participating in mobile commerce, such as new payment and shopping applications. Retailers will also have to ensure that their websites are able to handle a higher degree of mobile traffic. In the past, many consumers have reported problems with completing their purchases using a mobile device. This has lead to these purchases being abandoned and retailers being criticized for their relatively ineffective commerce systems.
Mobile commerce may see some strong growth during the holiday season
Mobile commerce is expected to shine during the holiday season, just as it has done in years past. Consumers are showing interest in mobile commerce because of its convenient nature, but retailers have been relatively slow to adopt new payment systems that cater to the needs of mobile shoppers. If retailers want to see more success, they will have to find ways to effectively engage mobile consumers.
A growing number of shoppers are using smartphones to buy products they want during the holiday season.
According to Google, a rising number of consumers are choosing to skip the long Black Friday marathon shopping experiences for small bursts of mobile commerce purchasing through the use of their smartphones.
These m-commerce purchases occur in scattered moments over time instead of all at once as is the Black Friday tradition.
Google has labeled these little bursts of mobile commerce shopping as “micro-moments”. In its blog, the company predicted that “This holiday season, shopping ‘moments’ will replace shopping ‘marathons,’.”
Approximately 54 percent of shoppers who will be making purchases this holiday season have said that they plan to do some of their shopping on their smartphones during periods of free time, such as while they are eating breakfast in the morning or during their daily commute, said Google. This data was generated through an analysis conducted between that company and Ipsos MediaCT from a consumer survey on their holiday season shopping behaviors.
The research showed that people would rather use mobile commerce and are less likely to take marathon in-person trips.
Last year, Google observed a steady increase in mobile shopping throughout the length of the holiday season and noted a decrease in the number of spikes on the traditionally preferred shopping days such as Black Friday morning.
The company explained in its blog that “This type of shopping has lead to shorter, more purposeful mobile shopping sessions.” It also went on to say that “In fact, while shoppers now spend 7% less time in each mobile session, smartphone’s share of online shopping purchases has gone up 64% over the last year, and 30% of all online shopping purchases now happen on mobile phones.”
Ahead of the Thanksgiving weekend, approximately 61 percent of holiday shoppers will already begin researching the products that they are thinking about buying. That is an increase of 17 percent over last year, despite the fact that Thanksgiving fell very late in the season in 2014. That said, Google still pointed out that while shoppers may start researching early, most purchases will still happen later on in the holiday season.
