Mobile shopping to soar this christmas

How are you planning to do your christmas shopping this year? Online from your favourite comfy chair, nice and toasty by the fire? Will you take to the high streets in search of the perfect gift, taking in the christmas atmosphere with a mulled wine? Or will you combine the two, preferring to find the perfect gift then check on your mobile to see if you can buy it online and save money?

The latter of these options is called ‘showrooming’ and has become more popular in recent years as consumers seek out the best product by reading reviews and the best price for their intended purchase. Research by IAB shows people are also taking photos of products (22% did this) and posting them to social networks.

A whopping 76% of people now use their mobiles whilst shopping. The canny consumer, rather than walking from store to store to find the best price can now quickly use that mini computer in their pocket, to check prices on the whole of the internet. That’s some consumer power!

As retailers prepare for the big christmas spend, expectations by analysts are that mobile shopping (frequently referred to as m-commerce) will become the preferred platform for many consumers, especially with the rise of mobile apps.

Mobile purchases accounted for just over 8% of online purchases in the first three months of the year and this figure is predicted to increase to 20% by christmas. The IMRG Capgemini eRetail Sales Index forecasts that £920 million will be spent via m-commerce, which equates to one fifth of the £4.6 billion total online sales expected.

The big online stores are also expecting to see significant sales growth via mobile. Ebay expects mobile sales to account for 30% of all sales over christmas.

With more consumers turning to mobile shopping, ensuring you offer the best user experience is now more important than ever before. In the busy bustle of christmas, if your mobile visitors can’t find the items they want quickly, if the product details and reviews are too difficult to get to, if the path to purchase doesn’t offer a persuasive, engaging experience, they’ll spend their hard earned money with your competitors instead.

Did you know?

We worked on the design and usability for one of the very first smartphones.

Yes we’ve been working with mobiles for a long time! We’ve worked with most of the major mobile manufacturers and when it comes to mobile you won’t find anyone more experienced than the Keepitusable team. We’re experts when it comes to things like mobile interface design, user research, hardware ergonomics, usability testing, concept research, eye tracking and everything else mobile!

We really are mobile ux and usability experts. You can trust our high quality work.

Get in touch