Whether we buy online or research online, all retail is going to be impacted by online activity. Not ten years from now, but just a couple of years from now. How can that be, you ask, when only 5.4% of retail sales were reported as e-commerce in the fourth quarter of 2012?
Well, here’s the news bulletin. While online retail sales are a smaller portion, many of today’s sales are web-influenced. In fact, 70% of consumers research online before they make an in-store purchase. And the average shopper may be using 10.4 sources of information to make a purchase decision. Social media and mobile continue to become important influencers in this shopping behavior.
Moms continue to be the heavy shoppers and one-third of all moms own a connected device. Moms spend 6.1 hours per day on average on their smartphones – that’s more than magazines, TV or radio. 62% use shopping apps and 46% took action after seeing a mobile ad. Mobile usage is growing among moms. It’s 40% higher today than in 2009 for these mobile moms. The statistics for moms shopping on tablets are off the charts - 97% made a purchase using their tablet in the last month. And 46% actually want to receive information while they are in a store.
Warning to Retailers: many retailers have been shown to be slow to adapt, and are without tablet websites or iPad sites. When you don’t keep up, you are giving the competition the edge and giving iPad shopping startups a shot, like Pickie or Fab.com or others.
