The Impact of Mobile on the Holidays

And why it matters to your business

Although consumers are embracing mobile at a rapid rate, most businesses are not jumping on the bandwagon as quickly. A recent report from eCommerce Know-How actually showed that 58 percent of companies are not utilizing mobile marketing or mobile commerce. Is this number surprising to you?

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As pointed out in the above video, the biggest reasons for companies not embracing mobile are because:

1.    The investment was too much (31%)
2.    Their customers weren’t mobile (31%)
3.    No one was available to manage it (31%)
4.    It was incompatible with their ecommerce system (31%)

The companies also said that executives weren’t behind their mobile efforts (23.8%), they didn’t know how to get mobile (11.9%), it was too much work (21.9%), and they were worried about security issues (9.5%).

On the other hand, the National Retail Federation also recently issued their 2010 eHoliday pre-holiday survey in partnership with BIGresearch. This survey found that more than one-fourth of retailers said that they invested “significantly” in mobile commerce applications in order to prepare for the holiday season.

It also found that over one-quarter of Americans that have smartphones said they would use them to research or make holiday purchases this year. In addition, the survey revealed that consumers depend on mobile devices for shopping events such as Black Friday and Cyber Monday.

Both of these surveys indicate that businesses are not keeping up with consumers, which is, unfortunately, a common problem. Social media is another area in which businesses have not kept up with consumers.

In short, mobile is impacting this year’s holiday season and the companies that do not have mobile efforts are missing out on valuable opportunities. eCommerce Know-How even found that more than 40 percent of the companies that are embracing mobile have seen a positive ROI from their efforts.

Is your business taking advantage of mobile marketing and mobile commerce this holiday season?

It’s Not Too Early To Start Preparing for the Holidays
By Chris Crum – Tue, 06/08/2010 – 3:15pm.

Many Begin Shopping/Researching As Early as August

It’s June, so it must be time to start preparing for the holidays right? Seriously, it’s never to early to start thinking about it when you’re in retail. That’s precisely why Google has run down some takeaways from the 2009 holiday season on its Retail Advertising Blog.

Google reminds us that last year, 44% of shoppers had already started their holiday shopping and researching in August. That’s not so far away. Some other stats the company points out:

- Searches for ‘promo codes’ increased by as much as 55% year-over-year.

- Black Friday searches rose 20% year-over-year as consumers flock online during the traditionally offline shopping event.

- 2 of the top 3 days for online purchases were Mondays.

- In a joint test with Levi’s, Google found that paid search ads, whether or not clicked, raised consumer awareness substantially.

- Half of all new internet connections will come from mobile phones.

- Searches for “buy online, pick up in store” were up by as much as 100% this past December.

Eric Lopez of the Google Retail Team runs these and others down in this post. The point is, we generally tend to start talking about getting ready for the holidays, as the holidays get closer, but the further in advance you are prepared, the better…well, prepared, you are likely to be.

At least start thinking about your plans.

By Doug Caverly – Tue, 03/16/2010 -

NRF expects sales to head up this year

It looks like small businesses are going to benefit from two “up” holidays in a row.  Less than a week after the National Retail Federation predicted that people will spend more on St. Patrick’s day this year than last, the organization issued another forecast suggesting that Easter will also be more profitable.

The NRF (along with BIGresearch, which actually conducted the study by interviewing about 8,300 people) has the average American on record as spending $116.59 to celebrate Easter last year.  Which is a rather impressive amount.

This year, though, the NRF believes the average consumer will spend $118.60, or roughly 1.7 percent more.  And most of this money should be spent on food, clothing, gifts, candy, flowers, decorations, and greeting cards (with those categories listed in order of most money spent to least).

Tracy Mullin, the president and CEO of the NRF, explained the increase in a statement by saying, “With signs of spring popping up everywhere, shoppers are eager to get their hands on bright, colorful Easter merchandise.  Warmer weather and special holiday promotions are the perfect mix to get people out of their homes and into stores as spring approaches.”

Then here’s one more thing to keep in mind as Easter approaches: young people, and not older folks with bigger incomes and grandkids to spoil, are supposed to be the biggest purchasers.  The NRF thinks 25-34-year-olds will shell out $136.79, while 18-24-year-olds will spend $125.85.

Phil Rist, an executive vice president at BIGresearch, said in response to these somewhat surprising findings, “Often living in another state because of college or a career, young adults feel compelled to bring candy for the little ones and even greeting cards for others when visiting for Easter.”

Hopefully these trends will lead to all small businesses having a good Easter.  Of course, small businesses that take the NRF’s specific predictions into account when prepping for the holiday may fare even better than average.

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