Tag: mobile shopping

Forget Black Friday because in the United Kingdom shoppers buy the most on Christmas Day.

Some fascinating festive shopping insight is coming from the United Kingdom, as data has shown that UK mobile commerce spikes higher on Christmas Day than any other day of the year. Criteo recently released the results of a recent study. The festive trends analysis showed Christmas itself was the top shopping day for smartphone users.

This study took into account the volume of shopping on all days throughout the holiday season.

This holiday shopping study included Black Friday. What Criteo found was that on Christmas Day, 62 percent of online purchases are made over smartphones. This effectively makes that holiday itself the busiest UK mobile commerce day. There have been a number of theories to explain this trend.

Primarily, researchers believe that mobile shoppers look around online to find sales on gifts they wanted but didn’t receive. If Santa didn’t bring it, they’re determined to find it for themselves. Moreover, as the brick-and-mortar shops are closed that day, their only option is to go online. Criteo reported that 53 percent of Christmas Day shoppers are looking for items for themselves over their smartphones.

UK mobile commerce has already been showing a heavier trend than in the United States.

Previous studies have indicated that people in the United Kingdom are more likely to complete a purchase over mobile commerce than their American counterparts. This only increases the tendency to use the device that is already in their hands in order to make a purchase. On the other side of the ocean, many Americans still prefer to use their laptops.

In the UK, only 28 percent of online shoppers are making their purchases over a desktop. That figure is quite different in the United States.

The Criteo study showed that while the largest day for sales volume is Black Friday (246%), Christmas Day leads in a different area. Two out of every three transactions completed online are done over smartphones. While the actual total number of purchases may not be as high on Christmas as it is on Black Friday, the percentage of UK mobile commerce purchases is notably higher that day when compared to desktop.

Consumers are being cautioned to be exceptionally careful of public WiFi hotspots and fake apps.

With shoppers out by the millions today, trying to find the best deal, Black Friday mobile security efforts will be critically important. Cybercriminals know that consumers will be downloading mobile commerce apps and will be tapping into public WiFi hotspots. This provides them with the perfect opportunity to launch their scams.

Anyone planning to use their smartphones should be aware of these types of fraud so they can protect themselves.

Anyone hoping not to have to deal with Black Friday mobile security problems will need to inform themselves. They will also need to take precautions. Fake m-commerce apps are expected to abound, as will fake Wi-Fi hotspots in busy locations such as malls. A growing number of security firms have been reminding consumers to take care before blindly trusting an application or internet connection.

Hackers love opportunities such as Black Friday mobile security breaches to grab private information.

Two of the companies that have tried to warn consumers of the types of mobile security threats that can occur on days like today are RiskIQ and Skycure.

Mobility strategist Brian Duckering of Skycure blogged that “Cyber criminals are increasing our risk of using mobile devices while shopping, whether it is Black Friday or Cyber Monday.” He added that “Going to physical stores and connecting to risky Wi-Fi networks, or shopping online both pose increasing risks we should all be aware of.”

RiskIQ, an enterprise security firm, said that there is a greater cyber security risk for smartphone users this year than there was in 2015. Due to the larger number of mobile device users, there are also more active cyber criminals. They target shoppers using their mobile phones to discover products or even make the purchases while using in-store WiFi.

This year, RiskIQ predicts that nearly a third (30 percent) of online Black Friday and Cyber Monday spending will be over mobile devices. At the same time, Skycure’s forecast is that mobile payments will be used three times as much this year as last year. These open the doors to more Black Friday mobile security issues and it’s up to consumers to protect themselves.