As we edge into the beginning of the 2011 holiday shopping season, retailers and marketers are putting their mobile efforts into full force to encourage mobile purchasing.
There have already been some important indications of how the mobile results will look, and that many of the purchases – especially those made by men – will be done at the last minute. Mobile retail commerce services and apps company, Push Science, has released information that it has collected about the shopping habits of individuals and has made suggestions regarding the best mobile purchasing behaviors.
The CFO of Push Science, Ray Tabbara, said that “We expect 15% of all brick and mortar and online sales in the US will be influenced by mobile this year.” He added that what merchants must now ask themselves is what they are doing to impact and improve their mobile sales.
A survey performed by MocoSpace has also shown that different demographics have different spending habits online. For example, men spend nine times more than women on virtual goods when they buy through mobile social games. The survey involved the participation of 1,500 of MocoSpace’s mobile entertainment platform’s social gamers. It also discovered that while only 31 percent of women buy virtual goods, while 69 percent of men do the same.
Since men are the big spenders on mobile, catering to their last minute needs may be a wise decision for retailers. Targeting power shoppers and panic shoppers with the male tendency toward “planned procrastinations” is nothing new for the holiday season. It is only a matter of placing the target on men who will be using mobile channels to make their purchases.