The proportion of consumers in the US who own a smartphone is almost on par with the proportion owning a feature phone, according to [pdf] a report released in January 2012 by Google. 38% of US consumers responding to Phase 2 of the survey, conducted in September and October 2011, reported ownership of a smartphone, up 22.5% from 31% of respondents to Phase 1 of the survey, conducted in January and February 2011. By contrast, during that time period, the proportion reporting ownership of a feature phone dropped 17% from 47% to 39%. Read More »

54% of global IT and business professionals say that their iPad has partly replaced their laptop, while a further 16% say it has completely replaced their laptop, according to [download page] a survey released in January 2012 by IDG Connect. Adoption of the iPad has also curtailed usage of other devices: 43% say it has partly replaced their smartphone, while about one-third say it has partly replaced their PC, TV/DVD player, and MP3 player. Just 28% say the iPad has partly replaced their games console. Read More »

57% of US consumers say that they are increasingly checking product labels to see what company is behind the product they are buying, and the same proportion say they get annoyed when it is not obvious what company is behind a product, according to survey results released in January 2012 by Weber Shandwick. Roughly 2 in 5 US consumers also say they hesitate to buy a product when it is not clear what company makes them, and that they do research to learn about the companies that make the product they buy. Read More »

Total global revenue driven by paid search rose 36% year-over-year during the 2011 holiday season (November 6 to December 25), while transactions rose 56%, according to a Kenshoo report released in January 2012. Average order value (AOV) peaked the week of November 20, but overall, consumers spent 13% less per transaction in 2011 compared to 2010.

According to Kenshoo insight, these trends are likely indicative of consumers’ willingness to shop around at different retailers when buying all the items on their shopping lists, as well as their propensity to purchase more frequently without regard to order size due to retailers’ free shipping offers with lower or no minimums.
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Only 39% of C-suite executives in the US and Western Europe say their company is making the most out of data generated by prospects or customers, and less than half say their firm communicates with customers and prospects in real time, according to [download page] a survey released in January 2012 by Empirix. Respondents also display different mindsets about how to deal with personal data: 54% say they recognize that their company must foster trust by protecting personal information, but 49% also say that their customers and prospects’ personal information is a key business asset. Read More »

Mobile search advertising spend grew 269% year-over-year in Q4 2011, accounting for 14.2% of retailers’ total paid search budgets during the quarter, with impressions also up 317%, according to [download page] a January 2012 report from IgnitionOne. This investment appears to have paid off: according to data from IBM Smarter Commerce, 14.6% of all online sessions on a retailer’s site were initiated from a device in December 2011, more than double the rate of 5.6% from the previous year, while sales from mobile devices doubled, reaching 11%, compared to 5.5% in December 2010.
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72% of US consumers prefer to receive promotional offers that reflect their likes and dislikes, a proportion that rises to 75% among UK consumers, according to [download page] a survey released in January 2012 by the UK Direct Marketing Association (DMA), sponsored by Velti. German (46%) and French (50%) consumers are less drawn to preference-driven offers, although these offers still rank as their first choice. Surprise offers from companies are most popular in Germany (32%), with France (28%) closely following, although they are preferred by only 24% of US consumers and 20% of UK consumers. Read More »

One-third of American consumers prefer to receive offers on their mobile device via text message, ahead of mobile web, including email (21%), mobile application (11%), and voicemail (8%), according to [download page] a survey released in January 2012 by the UK Direct Marketing Association (DMA), sponsored by Velti. While these... Read More »

The US (16.8%) will fall behind China (18.8%) in online market share by 2015, according to Translated’s December 2011 T-Index, a statistical index that determines the online market share per country by combining the internet population and the corresponding GDP per capita.

The US boasted the largest T-Index in 2011, at 24.4%, ahead of China (11.5%), Japan (6.6%), Germany (4.9%), and the UK (3.7%). Read More »

Social networking ranked as the most popular online content category in worldwide engagement in October 2011, accounting for almost 1 in every 5 minutes spent online, up from just 6% of time spent online in March 2007, according to [download page] a report released in December 2011 by comScore. Time spent on social networking sites gained ground during that time primarily by taking share from web-based email and instant messengers. Read More »