How Big Will Mobile Be This Holiday Season? It’s A Numbers Game
Written by Evan SchumanOctober 28th, 2010
New figures from a National Retail Federation (NRF) survey suggest that mobile shopping will soar this holiday season. But digging deeper into the numbers suggests something much more nuanced. It shows a surprisingly large number of American consumers predicting they'll shop by phone as well as comments from younger, "practically married to their smartphones" consumers saying they'll not be using their phones for shopping—not even for research.
The story behind the numbers also gets into some definitional questions. Consider a 19-year-old who poses a question to a Facebook forum about which car to buy. Does that consumer think of such an inquiry as mobile research or merely talking with friends? Retailers are likely to see it as quintessential M-Commerce research, but the consumer—who is answering these survey questions—is more likely to see it as hanging with friends and say "no," said Pam Goodfellow, a senior analyst with Big Research, which managed the NRF survey.
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