BII MOBILE INSIGHTS: Holiday Buyers Are Taking It Mobile

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Holiday Buyers Make It Mobile (eMarketer)
With the holiday season on the horizon, retailers are gearing up for the rush of gift shopping that accompanies the last few months of the year. The number of online purchasers who plan to buy a gift on a mobile device this holiday season has almost doubled to 21%, up from 11% in 2011.

mobile shopping holiday season 2012

Cost comparisons are one of the most favored uses of smartphones by shoppers. The largest percentage of respondents, about four in 10, said they would use smartphones to search for sales and other specials before entering a store. Almost the same percentage said they would use smartphones to check prices on Amazon and make sure they were getting a good deal.

mobile holiday shopping activities

The number of people planning to make a purchase this year on a smart device was significant at 16%.

channels used for holiday shopping 2012

Consumers see online shopping as a way to save time and avoid holiday crowds at brick-and-mortar locations, highlighting online and mobile shopping’s ability to ease some of the stresses associated with holiday gift-buying.

Google’s Predictions For Holiday Shopping (Google)
Today, people no longer see a line between online and offline shopping, and neither do smart retailers. This year online and offline shopping experiences are more seamless than ever before - across pricing, functionality, and promotions - making this the first "Nonline" holiday season. Here are some highlights from Google's Holiday Consumer Intentions 2012 report:

Online and offline shopping is blurring:

People are shopping smarter:

users plan to research before buying

Trusted connections are coming online:

online impacts holiday shopping

Mobile has become an integral part of the holiday shopping experience. And retailers are starting to respond with more mobile-friendly sites, experiences and offers.

As More Holiday Shoppers Go Mobile, Are You Ready? (TopTenWholesale)
Taking the examples of successful mobile-optimized sites, the idea behind mobile marketing is to promote simple, straight-to-the-point navigation to make it easy for mobile phone users to find whatever they need on your website. Heavy images and complicated designs don’t work well with small screens and will only hamper the experience so it is best to stick to the basics. Perhaps one of the best ways to make your ecommerce site mobile friendly is through constant testing and gathering of feedback. One important decision to make for online retailers is whether to develop an app or to optimize their websites for mobile phones. To determine which would work best for your business, you need to (1) determine which platforms your customers use and (2) find out what your customers expect to get out of your app or website.

Mobile Will Dominate Trends In 2013 (Gartner via CNet)
Mobile devices, applications, cloud and big data. These trends that companies can seize on for strategic advantage are the headliners for Gartner's top technology trends for 2013. According to analyst David Cearley, the theme for 2013 is that the information technology department has to navigate cloud, social, mobility and information as those trends play off of each other.

strategic technologies

Strategic technologies will impact the enterprise over the next three years. "These technologies will cause major disruption to your environment," said Cearley. "This list is a starting point."

Video Killed The Radio Star And Mobile Killed The Desktop (CollegeTimes.ie)
Whatever you think the web is today, it will likely be different tomorrow from what you imagined it would be. Your desktop is no longer the web. The emergence of smartphones and tablets are now taking over. There's "a whole generation that is not going to desktop, instead they’re going straight to mobile," says Niall Harbison, founder of Simply Zesty. Mobile web, therefore, is essential. More and more users are downloading apps and going mobile instead of using search engines these days, which is hurting companies like Google. Smartphones and mobile devices have changed the way everyone consumes information and uses the web in general. And even the mightiest of news sources are at the mercy of the web. Just ask Newsweek.

Mobile Is The Largest Tech Platform In History (@Qualcomm)
In a world of 7 billion people, there are more than 6 billion mobile connections, making mobile the largest tech platform in history.

mobile is largest tech platform

That's kind of mindblowing.

How China Is Pushing Forward The Mobile Internet In 2012 (Tech In Asia)
In the gradual but massive shift to the mobile internet, Asia is leading the way. The continent has seen 192.5% growth in mobile internet traffic in recent years, way more than any other region. Pushing all this forward is China.

internet traffic growth