With the holiday season approaching, shopping for your loved ones has become easier with the use of a smartphone. Catalogs and print ads are slowly becoming a part of retail history, while videos and display ads on mobile devices are becoming increasingly effective. Many shoppers depend on the Internet for feedback on products and to inform them on where these products can be found. According to Google, 64 percent of smartphone users search for gifts to buy before heading to the store. Buyers can save time by doing background checks on products and researching consumer reviews before entering retail stores. Sometimes images or static reviews are not enough; Retail Micro-Moments issued by Google calculated that 68 percent of smartphone shoppers use YouTube as a research tool when browsing for the perfect present to get a livelier feel of the product.
There are still those traditional shoppers who play it safe and continue to shop in store. Some stores give buyers the option to ship their purchase to their home or pick it up in store, which is very important to shoppers. A Post-Holiday Shopping Intentions Study by Google found a free shipping discount is likely to catch the consumer’s attention when shopping online. Black Friday and Cyber Monday are the two biggest shopping holidays, with Cyber Monday bringing in 3 billion dollars alone last year. But is it worth standing out in the cold? Well, 60 percent of shoppers believe it is when asked in a survey directed by A.T. Kearney in the Future of Stores Study. Luckily, for those who do not want to make the trek to storefronts during these shopping holidays, companies have made it extremely easy to shop those holiday sales online. Instead of using a browser to shop on a smartphone, some companies, such as Target and H&M, have apps so that users can easily make purchases with just one click. But beware, there could be an occasional delay for Cyber Monday due to items selling out more quickly. Whether you stay on the couch and buy gifts online or gather the family together for a field trip Thanksgiving night, great sales are waiting for you!