More consumers than ever before are using apps to make purchases online and those behaviours are not about to change as the holiday season begins.
Some 48% of respondents in a survey of 9,000 by mobile app experience experts Airship in the U.S., U.K., France, Germany, Australia, Singapore and India said they expected to shop online during the holidays.
And nearly the equivalent of 47% will be using their smartphones to shop rather than desktops.
The largest number of holiday season online-only shoppers appear to be in the UK, followed by India and the US.
“Consumers are clearly developing a preference for mobile apps as the primary destination to save them time and streamline their shopping experiences from in-store wayfinding to click-and-collect and curbside pickup,” said Brett Caine, CEO and president, Airship. “For retailers, apps offer better opportunities to truly understand their customers and form stronger direct relationships, as it’s much easier to tie together their digital and physical activities and engage them throughout their journey with the brand.”
From a generational perspective Gen Z (18%) and millennials (16%) are more likely than boomers (13%) to do all their shopping online.
Among the activities shoppers perform most with their smartphones are using loyalty cards in-store, visiting a retailer’s website or app and comparing prices are reading reviews.
Millennials are the most likely to perform in-store digital activities.
Around 81% of millennials also said they used retail apps more or about the same since the pandemic began, followed by 77% of Gen X, 74% of Gen Z and 66% of baby boomers.
The findings offer an interesting insight into mobile advertiser targeting during the 2021 holiday season.
