Tag: holiday shopping season

Consumers in the United Kingdom will spend an estimated £2.3 billion making purchases on smartphones and tablets.

Recent statistics released by a forecast from Adobe have shown that shoppers in the United Kingdom will be using mobile commerce this year more than ever before when it comes to buying everything they need for their Christmas celebrations.

The prediction from the forecast is that m-commerce will comprise 23 percent of all online holiday shopping.

That percentage will mean that about £2.3 billion of holiday purchases in the United Kingdom will have been made over mobile commerce, this year. The Adobe study predicts that sales overall will also increase by 7 percent when compared to last year, bringing the total to a hefty £17.7 billion. Online shopping will make up about 57 percent of that total figure. The U.K. will also experience the largest one-day shopping peak online when compared to all European countries. The prediction is that “Black Friday” on November 27 will generate £474 in online sales. The average spending across the country will be £8.06 per person on that one day.

The portion of the spending that will occur over mobile commerce has never been higher in the U.K.

Mark Zablan, the president of Adobe EMEA, said that “This year’s report once again underscores the importance of the Christmas shopping season as a driver for eCommerce across Europe, giving consumers the ability to take advantage of low prices, retailer offers and product variety without battling crowds on the High Street.”

That said, Zablan also pointed out that consumers are looking for more than a great deal. The Adobe report underscored the importance of being able to obtain access to product reviews in order to make their buying choices. Social media is also expected to continue to play a vital role in the decision making process for Christmas present shopping.

He indicated that European retailers will want to pay close attention to those insights, as it means that they will need to go beyond simply advertising that they have the best deals. They will be required to “create meaningful opportunities to engage with consumers throughout the customer journey that will drive them to the point of purchase.” In that effort, Zablan said that social media will be a central mobile commerce player.

Even if you aren’t in the fast food industry, there is still a great deal that can be learned from its largest brands in terms of mobile marketing, as these companies have been some of the first to embrace this channel.

Both the advances and mistakes made by these brands offer important lessons.

Many of the largest companies in fast food have now introduced mobile marketing websites and mcommerce apps to help them to encourage customers to buy more, and shop more often. Examining their past strategies can be very helpful in assisting you with the creation of your company’s strategy or campaigns in the upcoming months.

Mobile marketing will be especially important throughout this holiday shopping season. With Thanksgiving right ahead, it is important to eliminate all of the quirks in your campaigns.

The official start to the holiday shopping season to begin at the end of this week, if you are hoping to use mobile commerce to help in your successes this year, then the time is now to avoid some of the most common mistakes.

Your presence for smartphone and tablet shoppers must be established to take part in this huge marketplace.

Last year, according to comScore, consumers spent 15 percent more on holiday shopping than they did the year before, bringing it to $37 billion. According to figures from the U.S. Census department, almost 51 percent of the American population widely used mobile commerce and the internet over their smartphones and tablets in 2011. It is expected that mobile commerce use and holiday shopping will come together significantly this year.

Therefore, it will be very important for you to have your mobile commerce campaign in order in time for the holiday shopping season to take off. That said, it isn’t just a matter a presence, anymore, but you need to get it right and avoid common mistakes, as well. Small errors have a way of rapidly snowballing so that they cause notable harm to potential sales. It is important to eliminate them as quickly as possible and not simply wait until Christmas Eve.

The following are some of the top mobile commerce mistakes that can be the most destructive to your campaign.

• Failing to draw attention to holiday discounts, deals, sales, and promotions. Almost every holiday shopper, particularly those using mobile commerce, are seeking for the best prices and savings opportunities on the gifts they are buying. If they don’t realize that you have something special to offer, it won’t take them long to move on to the competition.

• Failing to provide stock status and shipping information – the closer the date comes to December 25, the more vital this becomes. As things become more last minute, shoppers start to concentrate less on price and more on making sure that the gift will arrive on time.

• POS error messages – if a smartphone or tablet user is using a mobile commerce checkout, and he or she submits the wrong information or accidentally leaves a required field blank, make sure that the error message clearly states what was not correctly submitted. If the customer can’t tell, he or she may become frustrated and give up, abandoning the shopping cart and buying somewhere else, instead.