According to a survey carried out by Sybase 365 and the Mobile Marketing Association, 87% of consumers will use a mobile device to help with their Holiday shopping, information that should leave any company wondering if they ought to invest more in mobile marketing.
Holidays have always been a great moment to launch campaigns and obtain sales. Christmas season is considered as a good opportunity to improve the poor figures of an economic cycle notable for the falling purchasing power of consumers.
The importance of this figure is that it represents an increase by 25% in purchase transactions through a mobile device compared to 2011, which is significant for the future of advertising and marketing.
What we can interpret is that we are talking about a sector that advertising can rely on as means to generate higher profits in the short and long term. Turning down a business opportunity that creates such amount of sales seems so reckless, and we’re not just talking about the sale itself as the same study stresses that smart phone users use their devices for transactions that are crucial when it comes to selling such as: comparing prices, getting extra information about the product, or having access to promotions and coupons.
Not being present in the world of mobile devices means a significant competitive lost that will create a huge gap among competitors and that year after year is expected to get bigger and bigger. The market changes constantly so businesses must change to adapt to the new requirements and waiting too long can take its toll.
Nevertheless, is not all about the mobile world although it is still moving ahead faster than any other device as the main point of connection to the Internet. Nowadays, the integration of any business in the online world will become increasingly necessary and a clear example of this are the outstanding figures this year during “Black Friday”, day that usually kicks off the holiday shopping season in the US. “Black Friday” saw the biggest boost in online activity reaching 141.8 million Euros in online sales and growing 20.7% since last year.
In the UK on the other hand, purchases completed on mobile phones are predicted to double or possibly triple compared with last year, generating £3.5bn-worth of sales this Christmas, according to a forecast from business consultancy firm Deloitte.
And as the Telegraph states: Mobile phones ‘will end men’s Christmas shopping panic’, so that’s something to consider as well.