As expect­ed, mobile adver­tis­ing and com­merce has expe­ri­enced anoth­er strong year of growth and increased rev­enues. It’s a top­ic that has been well cov­ered in the dig­i­tal mar­ket­ing press; there’s no short­age of arti­cles cov­er­ing the steady rise of mobile in adop­tion, usage, and increased rev­enue streams that brands are achiev­ing with the chan­nel. A ques­tion explored less often is where mobile shop­ping ties in with con­sumer pur­chase jour­neys, and what the impli­ca­tions of under­stand­ing this con­sumer behav­ior is for mar­keters.

While stud­ies often offer extreme­ly healthy sta­tis­tics, it has been tra­di­tion­al­ly dif­fi­cult for brands to attribute mobile inter­ac­tions. For this rea­son stud­ies reveal­ing exact­ly how and when con­sumers are using their mobiles in their pur­chase jour­neys has been explored less often. Such data is nonethe­less valu­able as it pro­vides brands with insights on the touch­points they can look to ful­fill via their mobile expe­ri­ence deliv­ery.

A recent study has resolved to address the gap in knowl­edge via the most direct means pos­si­ble: ask­ing the peo­ple who use smart­phones!

Research by the Inter­net Adver­tis­ing Bureau UK (IAB), in col­lab­o­ra­tion with research agency Kan­tar Media, sur­veyed more than 2,000 British smart­phone users between the ages of 16 to 70, ask­ing them ques­tions on how they were using mobile devices in their pur­chase jour­neys, and their chang­ing rela­tion­ships with tra­di­tion­al media. In addi­tion, the study con­sid­ered the poten­tial impli­ca­tions for brands that don’t have a mobile opti­mized site.

Seeking Product Information

Telling­ly, the study revealed that mobile phones were the num­ber one device for smart­phone own­ers (ages 16 to 34) when look­ing for infor­ma­tion about prod­ucts, plac­ing mobile as a key touch­point in the research and eval­u­a­tion stage of the pur­chase fun­nel. Lap­top com­put­ers were the sec­ond most pop­u­lar device for look­ing up prod­uct infor­ma­tion.

Sev­en­ty-three per­cent of mobile users said they would seek an alter­na­tive source of infor­ma­tion after expe­ri­enc­ing an unre­spon­sive, non-opti­mized mobile site, effec­tive­ly pre­ma­ture­ly end­ing con­sumer jour­neys. There­fore, it’s essen­tial that mar­keters pro­vide an opti­mized mobile site expe­ri­ence for prod­uct infor­ma­tion.

It cer­tain­ly rep­re­sents a sig­nif­i­cant prob­lem for brands and ecom­merce sites; the sur­vey revealed that 52 per­cent of smart­phone own­ers had vis­it­ed a unre­spon­sive mobile site in the last month, with 69 per­cent of con­sumers call­ing it a “frus­trat­ing” expe­ri­ence.

Mobile Shopping In The Holiday Period

In anoth­er recent study, loca­tion-based mobile plat­form Retale sur­veyed 1,000 men and women in the U.S. between Octo­ber 20 and 27 to get a pic­ture of cur­rent con­sumer shop­ping behav­ior and trends in antic­i­pa­tion of this year’s cru­cial win­ter shop­ping peri­od.

Again, Retale’s find­ings con­firmed the cru­cial impor­tance of mobile in ful­fill­ing a num­ber of touch­points in con­sumer pur­chase jour­neys. A large major­i­ty (73 per­cent) of respon­dents said that they planned to use their smart­phones for hol­i­day shop­ping, with 96–97 per­cent using their devices to find deals, com­pare prices, and research prod­ucts. Oth­er pop­u­lar uses of mobile were access­ing coupons (92 per­cent), find­ing stores (89 per­cent), and trans­act­ing direct­ly via the device (85 per­cent).

12 Essential Mobile Stats and Facts

Accord­ing to IAB:

1. 81 per­cent of users in the UK use the Inter­net on their mobiles, either via an app or brows­er dai­ly.
2. A even larg­er pro­por­tion, 90 per­cent, of users aged between 25 and 34 use the Inter­net on their mobiles, either via an app or brows­er dai­ly.
3. Mobile phones were the num­ber one device when look­ing up prod­uct infor­ma­tion, for smart­phone own­ers aged between 16 and 34.
4. 52 per­cent of smart­phone own­ers said they had vis­it­ed an unre­spon­sive, non-mobile opti­mized site in the last month, with 69 per­cent of these high­light­ing their expe­ri­ence as “frus­trat­ing.”
5. 59 per­cent of users said they looked up prod­ucts on their smart­phones or tablets to fol­low up adver­tis­ing on tra­di­tion­al media.
6. 43 per­cent of mobile users looked up fur­ther infor­ma­tion on either their smart­phones or tablets after being exposed to a brand or prod­uct on TV.
7. The fig­ure was 28 per­cent for news­pa­pers, 25 per­cent for out­door adver­tise­ments, and 21 per­cent for radio and mag­a­zines com­bined.

Accord­ing to Retale:

8. 22 per­cent of con­sumers said they would do 100 per­cent of their win­ter shop­ping online.
9. 24 per­cent said they would do their brick-and-mor­tar retail stores only.
10. 54 per­cent said they would shop both online and in-store.
11. 73 per­cent of U.S. con­sumers plan to use their smart­phones for hol­i­day shop­ping.
12. The most com­mon mobile shop­ping activ­i­ties for users are find­ing deals (97 per­cent); com­par­ing prices (96 per­cent) research­ing prod­ucts (96 per­cent); access­ing coupons (92 per­cent); find­ing stores (89 per­cent); and buy­ing direct­ly from the device (85 per­cent).

‘Mobile-First’ Site Optimizations Complete Consumer Journeys

The over­rid­ing take­away for mar­keters here is to ensure their sites are opti­mized for the mobile expe­ri­ence, espe­cial­ly when it comes to the pro­vi­sion of prod­uct infor­ma­tion that ful­fills touch­points in the research phase of con­sumer pur­chase cycles. While this may seem a straight­for­ward propo­si­tion, clear­ly many brands are still strug­gling, as more than half of users in the UK report­ed hav­ing a poor mobile expe­ri­ence in the past 4 weeks. Pro­vid­ing excep­tion­al mobile expe­ri­ences is key to tying togeth­er user jour­neys and ensure con­sumers aren’t deterred.

As IAB’s Senior Research Man­ag­er, Han­nah Bew­ley explains:

“The fact that 59 per­cent of smart­phone own­ers had been prompt­ed by tra­di­tion­al media in the last four weeks to look for more infor­ma­tion on prod­ucts shows that mobile is the glue that holds oth­er media togeth­er. The study empha­sized the impor­tance of opti­miz­ing sites so that con­sumers are able to browse your site, research your prod­uct and trans­act on the move. With 73 per­cent not look­ing for an alter­na­tive device if they reach a non-opti­mized site, brands with­out a mobile strat­e­gy are risk­ing los­ing cus­tomers.”

You can find out more about IAB’s, and Retales mobiles sur­vey.