Monthly Archive for January, 2012

Tablets and Smartphones Become Holiday Shopping Assistants

Published on January 11, 2012 in Internet and Internet Sales. 0 Comments

The majority of online purchases still made via desktop

This holiday season, consumers are consulting mobile devices for help checking off items on their shopping lists more than ever before. Thanks in part to the growth of tablet device ownership among US households, consumers are using mobile devices for product research, online shopping and to help make decisions while in brick-and-mortar stores. According to a Google holiday shopping study conducted by Ipsos OTX, 77% of tablet owners plan to use them this holiday season for shopping.

The Google study indicates that tablet owners have a higher likelihood of using the devices for online shopping than smartphone owners. When it comes to using mobile devices for in-store shopping though, roughly half of both smartphone and tablet users said they are very or extremely likely to use their devices—perhaps surprising given the typical tablet’s inability to fit into most people’s pockets.

Another holiday shopping study, from Prosper Mobile Insights, indicates that about 60% of smartphone and tablet users plan to use their devices for holiday shopping this season. Prosper Mobile Insights divides shopping activities differently than Google. However, the research indicates that most of the respondents who do plan to use their device for holiday shopping will use it during the planning and research phase. About 40% of those respondents will use mobile devices while out shopping, including while in a physical store.

Prosper Mobile Insights also shows that certain product categories drive more tablet and smartphone usage than others. Respondents told the research firm they would purchase books, CDs and DVDs, video games, clothing and electronics via their smartphone or tablet devices this year at rates of 50% or higher.

Todd Pollak, retail industry director for Google, told eMarketer in an interview that Google has seen a direct correlation between mobile shopping activity and ads that consumers might have viewed on TV.

For example, a consumer might see a TV commercial for a discounted item and subsequently search for that deal via tablet, which are becoming consumers’ go-to device when it comes to product research and shopping online, Pollak said. Smartphones are increasingly becoming on-the-go personal shopping assistants, he noted.

In terms of mobile commerce, Pollack said there’s still room for growth, especially when it comes to mobile-optimized websites.

“The big barrier to people using smartphones for commerce is that the browser experience on the phone is still difficult,” Pollak said. “With mobile-optimized sites, conversion values, engagement and page views go way up. Yet only a small percentage of Fortune 100 retailers have implemented them.”

eMarketer estimates that 26.8 million US mobile users will have made a purchase via their feature or smartphone by the end of this year, rising to 37.5 million in 2012.

Marketers Look Beyond Social Media Experimentation

Published on January 10, 2012 in Social Media, Uncategorized and Website Online Marketing. 0 Comments

As budgets increase, marketers hope to understand more about social media

Marketers are becoming more mature when it comes to their social media marketing, and many in the US say they hope to move beyond the experimentation phase in the coming years.

In October 2011, at the second annual Pivot Conference, a survey found that 37.1% of marketers said their company will move beyond experimentation in social media marketing in 2012. An additional 14.6% expect to do so in 2014 and 5.6% by 2015. Nearly 8% said it would be later than 2015 and more than a third (34.8%) said they did not know when they would move past the experimentation phase.

There were many factors that marketers cited as influential in their drive for more mature social media marketing. Among the respondents who said their company would move beyond social media experimentation in 2012, 68.5% said an increased understanding on the benefits of social media was a factor that encouraged this maturation. Additionally, 60.9% cited a development of clear social strategy, 54.3% pointed to clearly defined outcomes and 51.1% mentioned metrics as having an influence.

While only 26.1% of respondents said budget increases would influence the move beyond experimentation, marketers also told the Pivot Conference that social media marketing would make up a higher percentage of their marketing budget in 2012 and beyond. While 37% of respondents said social media would be less than 5% of the marketing budget in 2011, only 27.1% expected that same low percentage in 2012 and just 18.8% predicted it would remain that low in 2013.

The combination of bigger budgets and increased sophistication will likely spur companies to go further toward reaching maturity in their social media marketing efforts and foster new examples of successful social media campaigns in the coming years.

 

Who Uses Tablets Most?

Published on January 4, 2012 in Uncategorized. 0 Comments

Asian-Americans join Hispanics in early adoption of emerging devices

Asian-Americans are avid users of new devices and are among the first to buy tablets and ereaders. They join US Hispanics on the top rungs of the technology early-adoption ladder.

eMarketer’s estimate of US tablet users shows that 14.4% of Asians have used tablets monthly this year, vs. 12.6% of Hispanics and just over 10% of blacks and whites. The gap will narrow as the years pass, but it will take until 2014 for whites in the US to reach the same tablets penetration level as Asian-Americans.

Another study, by the Center for Hispanic Marketing Communication at Florida State University, also found that Asian-Americans have among the highest penetration for both tablets and ereaders. With 14% ereader penetration rate, Asians are about even with Spanish-speaking Hispanics (15%), and a few points behind Hispanics who are primarily English-speaking (20%).

But Asians are on par with Hispanics in possession of tablets, with 17% of both groups reporting ownership.

“US Hispanics and Asian-Americans are very eager to bridge the technological gap and they are proportionately more likely to adopt these devices than non-Hispanic whites,” said Felipe Korzenny, Ph.D., who led the Florida University study.

Asians’ aspirational intentions for these devices are also high, with 35% saying they plan to have tablets within the next year. Spanish-speaking Hispanics have the highest intention to purchase tablets, at 41%. Non-Hispanic whites have the lowest intention to acquire tablets (22%).

Referring to Asians’ high intention to purchase, Korzenny said Asians should be “more interesting targets to marketers because they are much more interested in these products.”

Reasons for early adoption among Asian-Americans, who comprise about 6% of the US population, include that they are more educated than average and have higher annual incomes than other minorities. “And those two factors make them more technologically innovative types of people,” said Korzenny.

And while it’s true this demographic skews young, when Korzenny broke down the data by age, he found out that age makes no difference in emerging-device adoption among Asian-Americans.