Category: Featured News

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.

Report suggests that Android Pay could be out competitors in the mobile payments space

Android Pay is expected to become the leading mobile payments tool in the coming years, according to a report from Digitimes Research. Android Pay was initially released in September of this year and serves as Google’s latest mobile payments solution. Google had released a payment platform years ago, called Google Wallet, but this platform has struggled to find traction with consumers. The company does not have plans to kill Google Wallet, with Android Pay working alongside the platform.

Apple Pay may fall behind Android Pay when it comes to supporting consumers interested in mobile payments

Google’s latest payment solution is competing with Apple Pay for the favor of consumers. According to Digitimes Research, Android Pay has three major advantages over its competitor, with the first being that more banks and retailers are willing to embrace the solution. More consumers are also expected to have Android devices as opposed to iOS devices, with Android accounting for 75% of global smartphone shipments in 2015. The accessibility of Apple Pay is somewhat limited, as the platform is only available to those with high-end iOS devices.

Lack of administrative fees make the solution attractive to retailers and banks

One of the greater advantages of Android Pay is that users, banks, and retailers are not required to pay a service or administration fee for using the solution. This has made Android Pay very attractive to businesses interested in mobile payments. Android Pay also supports multiple identification technologies, including biometrics, that make transactions more secure. The solution also recognizes graphics, such as QR codes, making payments more convenient for consumers.

Heightened security makes Android Pay more attractive

Android Pay’s focus on security may become one of the major benefits of the platform. Security has long been an issue facing the mobile payments space, with many consumers opting out of mobile commerce over fears that their financial information would be compromised. Google’s approach to the security problem is heavily focused on protecting consumer information, which has made it very popular among consumers interested in mobile payments.