Holiday Marketing Doesn’t Have to be Tough: Think Mobile

Quick! Pretend Christmas is right around the corner and you only have one week to buy all your gifts for all the important people in your life. What (or who) do you turn to?

Amazon? Sure. Your mom? Possibly. Your Mobile Device? Bingo!

It makes no difference whether you’re shopping on-the-go or calling in reinforcements (thanks, mom!), mobile devices have become America’s trusted holiday shopping assistant. They offer on-the-go access to not only retail sites, but also social networks for gift ideas, email promotions for sale information, and a handful of emerging payment technologies. As soon as the holidays arrive, we bet your phone won’t be far away.

Between the 2014 and 2015 holiday seasons, retail smartphone purchases increased 96% to $39 billion¹. That massive growth is only expected to continue. Over the next five years, about half of all retail mcommerce sales will take place on smartphones¹.

If these numbers are any indication of what’s to come, marketers should start planning their mobile holiday strategy today for next year!

Mobile Is More Than a Trend

Mobile shopping behaviors continue to evolve. During the 2015 holiday season, 40% of shoppers reported using a mobile app to research or make a purchase, up 25% from the year prior². This is the next frontier of mobile shopping, and one that retailers will jump for joy over. What better way to drive holiday sales than by inviting your customers to join a native brand experience on their phone?

40% of shoppers reported using a mobile app to research or make a purchase

Even though retail apps currently lag behind mobile browsers for traffic, they drive a significant number of purchases. Last year, 54% of retail transactions worldwide occurred on a mobile app³. This is a clear indication that mobile is here to stay, and that consumers are accustomed to shopping on their mobile devices.

Prioritize Mobile During the Holidays

The holidays are a wonderful, yet chaotic time. Mad props to those that manage to wrap their last gift before Halloween. We understand that even the best-laid plans to finish your holiday to-do list early can not quite work out.

Don’t let your holiday marketing plan be the same.

Tackle the holidays early by understanding what consumer behaviors will shape this season. We recently published an ebook outlining the three holiday trends you need to know about in 2016 and how to master each one with an actionable “Holiday Marketing Checklist.”

To get your own copy:

CLICK HERE

Sources: 1 eMarketer, February 2016 as cited in eMarketer, “US Holiday Shopping Preview 2016,” March 2016 2 Oracle Marketing Cloud and Edison Research, “Making Spirits Bright: Increase Holiday Results with Retail Shopping Research,” 2016 3 Criteo, Q4 2015 State of Mobile Commerce Report, February 2016