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Along with a set of recommendations for effectively reaching shoppers on mobile this holiday season, Google published a compilation of stats to help round out a picture of how mobile is influencing shopping behaviors in-store and online.
Here’s a look at what the data indicate about how mobile will play a role in retailer and brand success this coming season.
Don’t count on brand loyalty. Or put another way, mobile increases chances of getting consideration from new customers:
- 76 percent of mobile shoppers have changed their mind about which retailer or brand to purchase.
- Over 50 percent of smartphone users have discovered a new company or product when conducting a search on their phones.
Mobile visibility influences in-store traffic:
- 64 percent of smartphone shoppers turn to mobile search for ideas about what to buy before heading into store.
- 76 percent of people who search for something nearby on their smartphone visit a related business within a day, and 28% of those searches result in a purchase.
YouTube can influence purchasing online and in-store:
- 25 percent of mobile video viewers in the U.S. have visited YouTube for help with a purchase decision while they were at a store or visiting a store’s website.
- Mobile watch time for product review videos on YouTube grew 60 percent year-over-year.
More mobile searchers are looking for special gifts, not just the cheapest:
- Mobile searches related to “unique gifts” grew more than 65 percent while mobile searches related to “cool gifts” grew 80 percent.
- Mobile searches related to “best gift” grew 70 percent year-over-year.
- Searches related to cheap or inexpensive gifts grew just 35 percent.
During last year’s holiday season, mobile conversion rates first peaked on Veteran’s Day, a holiday for many schools and businesses, followed by the expected increases on Black Friday and Cyber Monday. Retailers and brands should also be prepared for a surge over the first post-holiday weekend in early January.
