The New Generation of Holiday Shopping

Last year, social media was at the forefront of the holiday shopping helping increase sales by over 3% (Comscore, Inc.). This year, we could see an even larger increase in retail sales. The top reasons for this increase are the access to and increase usage of mobile devices. According to Arizona Business & Money, 25% of all shoppers will use a mobile device for a number of reasons while shopping during the holiday season. These statisitics dramatically increase in the Generation Y demographics, as half on the shoppers between the ages of 19-28 will use a mobile device.  The IDC, an independent research firm, has estimated that consumers using mobile technology will account for 28% of the expected $447 billion spent during the holiday season. If you don’t want to do the math, that’s over $125 billion spent using mobile device in some functionality. As mobile devices have evolved, so has the internet.  Social media and app integration on the mobile devices have become the focus of the way companies and people do business.

There’s An App For That

It’s so cliché but yet so true in the world today. For this year’s holiday shopping expect to find a number of shopping apps on all mobile devices and platforms ranging from the iPhone, Android, Blackberry & Window 7. The apps will range from deal finding Black Friday apps to barcode scanners to compare prices and unlock hidden promotions.

Social Media

Social Media is one of the biggest trends in the world today. But combination of social media and mobile devices has created a new force in the business world especially in retail. Geo-location networks, such as Foursquare and Gowalla, are allowing customers to receive hidden promotions just by checking into the store they are shopping. Companies are also rewarding loyalty to customers that check in thru a number of different ways: mayorship, raffles & coupons. Companies are also able to use them social networks to find out the demographics of their customers to find the return on investment by using social media.

QR Codes

If you have been looking through the holiday catalog this year, you may already know what I am talking about.  Companies such as Toy ‘r Us and Target are utilizing QR codes to allow consumers direct assess to promotions and the product. A simple scanner or QR scanner will scan the QR code and take you directly to the information you are looking for.  It allows consumers to access the information on the mobile device at the store or at home. The price and product are right at the consumers’ fingertips with updates on the status of the product, which eliminates fighting other consumers or long lines.

Multiculturalism

Mobile devices have helped minimize and even eliminate barriers for the multicultural community.  The Latin community has been one of the fastest market segments to respond by acquiring 8.6% of the world’s mobile devices along with a decrease of purchases in personal and desktop computers (TNS Global Market Research). At Social Media Atlanta, Kety Esquivel (@KetyE), VP of Digital Strategy at Oglivy PR, commented that the Latin community use mobile devices as an access point to the internet.  Just how big will mobile devices be in the mobile phone market a few years from now? Frost & Sullivan predict that mobile device usage in the Asian community will make up 54% of the mobile market in 2015.

New Kid on the Block

There seems to be a new player in the role of holiday shopping apps. The app, Shopkick is the first mobile app that gives you rewards simply for walking into stores, for scanning products, and for signing up friends. Shopkick was released in September, and has big names associated with the offers such as Best Buy, American Eagle and Target. These are just a few of the major companies looking to capitalize on consumers’ use of Shopkick.

Tomorrow, we will unveil our list of must have apps for holiday shopping!