Last year on Black Friday 5.6% of consumers visited a retailer’s website via their mobile phone per Coremetrics, and PayPal saw a whopping 310% increase in mobile payments. Pretty impressive statistics. If you thought that was mind blowing, you might want to sit down. Google estimates 15% of Black Friday searches will be on mobile, and 44% of last minute December gift and location searching will happen on mobile this year.
Does this sound realistic to you? It certainly sounds so to Nikki Baird, a Managing Partner at Retail Systems Research LLC, and we would have to agree. After all, Mobile search has grown 4x in the past year. And you better believe they aren’t just doing location searches. 70% of smartphone users say they have used their mobile in-store and that is not going to go anywhere but up. (Google Insights)
Now that we have your brain oozing statistics like your Aunt Mary’s fruitcake oozes gelatin, we would like to offer you a little insight. Here is what your mobilized customers are actually doing during all that mobile usage.
Deal Hunting
Obviously shoppers are looking for deals, but more often times the mobile source has the power to affect who they purchase from.
- Mobile Web Searches - The convenience that is a mobile web search cannot be denied. When a shopper searches for a product you have the crucial first step is to be in those search results; the second? A clear landing page that drives consumers to either enter a physical location or to purchase right there on their mobile. Try making distance to the nearest store, availability and product reviews visible on the landing page. Any other promos such as free shipping should also be available here if you want to encourage mobile checkout. Creating the most effective arrangement of this page is a science, and not the same science as your PC site.
- Branded Apps - Loyal customers will be turning to their favorite brands the Friday after Thanksgiving, and much of that will happen via an app. Most app using consumers will be using store locators, product information, reviews and price comparisons. If you are already on a customer’s mobile desktop you are at an advantage. Now it is time to encourage usage while in-store or out. As soon as shoppers enter your physical store prompt them to open their app for product details, reviews and more. Maybe they are not in your store, but nearby in a competitors? A geo-fence triggered notification of your specials can drive them from the competition to you. This Holiday season you can expect these mobile experiences to be common place, if you’re not doing it know your competitors are. Curious whether your customers will be engaging on Android or iPhone? Here is the latest usage score as of August 2011 from ComScore – Android 43.7% vs iOS 27.3%.
- The Dealmap – Shoppers will also be turning to 3rd party apps, including this Black Friday deal finder. While also a website, last Black Friday half of all The Dealmap traffic was mobile, and now that Google has acquired them you can expect at least 60% of traffic will be mobile this year. Retailers have the opportunity to advertise with these guys to make sure their deals are visible.
- Groupon – The amazing deal distributor that is Groupon went local earlier this year. This Black Friday shoppers will be turning to their Groupon iPhone or Android app to see what deals are all around them and redeemable at that moment. A consumer can head to a store, purchase the Groupon deal and redeem all in a matter of minutes. The jury is out on what usage this Groupon will see during Black Friday, but it has potential.
Inventory Check
Brace yourselves, here is our official prediction – This year those retailers who enabled inventory check in their app will see a 10% spike in foot traffic driven by mobile. Alright, we know there will be no statistics released confirming or denying this one. But if you are one of the few retailers who have enabled this feature on your app you have a major advantage. Google found 34% of smartphone owners search store inventory on their phone, and that is only the people who “have”, there are a lot more who “will” during the busiest shopping day of the year.
Inventory check is one surefire way of combatting price comparisons. Shoppers are likely to go straight to a store with in-stock product over chancing a dissapointment for a couple dollars that would likely be lost in gas.
Price Comparisons
Price comparison almost feels like a dirty word in retail. Or “He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named”. But the truth is many retailers are coming to terms with the inevitable consumer action that is price comparisons, and less of them are worried about it this year over last. Retailers have learned you cannot prevent it and are instead combating it by adding value to their offerings. One such value being the aforementioned mobile Inventory Check, another is posting signs in-store “If we’re out-of-stock order on your mobile now and receive free delivery with this Promo code”. Of course there are the usual mobile ads and bundling discounts which can capture attention and add value while preventing retailers from loosing profit margins on price matching.
In the end Black Friday shoppers are deal hungry shopping pros, and they love their tools. We can expect nothing but a huge leap in mobile assisted shopping and check-out. You can bet the Black Friday retail winners will be on their mobile game, I can’t wait to see who comes out on top.
- Cheryl Sansonetti, 5th Finger
