Holiday Smartphone Shoppers Favored Store For Purchases

Smartphone owners who used their device to holiday shop in 2011 were more likely to make a purchase in a store than online, according to a Google survey conducted in January 2012 and released in February. 46% researched on their smartphone and then went to the store to make their purchase, compared to 41% who researched on their device and then purchased on their smartphone, and 37% who researched on their device and then purchased online on a computer.

19% researched on their smartphone, visited a store to check out products, and then purchased online on their computer, nearly matched by the proportion who took the same purchase path but then purchased on their smartphone (18%). 8% visited the store first before making the purchase on their smartphone.

Overall, three-quarters of the smartphone shoppers used their device in a store during the holiday season to help them shop.

Online Tops for Research, but In-Store Rules for Purchase

Online research was a key part of the holiday shopping process, with 76% of of holiday shoppers saying they used the internet as a source of information. Store circulars/flyers (36%), in-store displays (34%), friends, relatives, colleagues (34%), and TV (29%) trailed distantly, as did other print media such as newspapers (21%), catalogs (20%), and magazines (13%).

Even so, mobile and desktop shoppers were more likely to make a purchase at a store (89%) than on their PC (75%), smartphone (11%), or tablet (6%).

Mobiles Become Entrenched in Shopping Process

Data from Google’s “2012 Post-Holiday Recap” indicates that among smartphone owners who used their devices the previous year to shop, 80% of smartphone shoppers used them more frequently in 2011, and 35% spent more money on them during the 2011 season. In fact, holiday shoppers rated their mobile devices as being as helpful as PCs: 57% of smartphone shoppers said their device was extremely helpful, compared to 59% of PC shoppers who felt that way.

One-quarter of holiday shoppers used more than one device to shop: of those, 42% used more than one device at the same time, while 68% started on one device and continued on another.

Computers Best for Price Comparisons, Discounts

Consumers were highly engaged in numerous shopping activities across all devices. However, among those who shopped online via a device, PC shoppers (79%) were more likely than tablet (63%) and smartphone (61%) shoppers to use their device to compare prices. They were also far more likely to use their device than tablet and smartphone shoppers to look for discounts and promotions (73% vs. 49% and 46%, respectively).

According to January 2012 survey results from Pew, when asked what happened on the most recent occasion they used their mobile phone to look up the price online of a product they found in a store, only 35% of respondents said they purchased the product at that store. 37% said they decided to not purchase the product at all, while 19% purchased the product online and 8% purchased the product at another store.

Other Findings:

• 55% of consumers expected free shipping during the holiday season, while 51% of shoppers took advantage of free shipping deals, and more than half of transactions involved the promotion. According to comScore data released in February 2012, 52% of all e-commerce transactions in Q4 2011 included free shipping, representing an all-time high, up 6% from the previous high of 49% in Q4 2010.
• 39% of holiday shoppers shopped after Christmas, and 32% finished their holiday shopping post-Christmas. The top 2 reasons for shopping post-holiday were to make additional purchases for themselves, and to wait for post-holiday sales.

About the Data: Two online surveys were conducted by Ipsos on behalf of Google. The post-holiday shopping study involved a sample of 615 holiday shoppers in the US. In order to qualify, respondents must have made a purchase in one of 13 retail categories during the holiday season. The second survey of mobile and desktop consumers involved interviews of a total of 615 holiday shoppers. Respondents were required to have made a purchase within a variety of product and service categories during the holiday season. Both surveys were conducted in January 2012.