Where Will Mobile Users Be Shopping this Holiday?

Shopping digitally this holiday season is a given for most mobile device users in the US. According to July research, 71% of those polled said they would make some to all of their gift purchases online, compared to 29% who said they would not.

In late July 2016, mobile advertising network Kiip surveyed 272,126 mobile device users ages 13 and older in the US about their holiday shopping behavior.

The majority of respondents said they had made a holiday-related buy online, compared to 29% who had not. However, disparities existed as to just how much of their shopping lists were paid for at the digital checkout. While 30% of mobile users said they had bought about a quarter of these gifts online, 5% said they had purchased all their holiday items.

Among all US internet users, not just mobile device users, Signal found that in-store (33.5%) and desktop or laptop (32.0%) were the most popular channels for holiday shopping buys. Meanwhile, only 16.4% said they plan to make these seasonal purchases on mobile, including smartphones and tablets.

The imbalance of in-store vs. digital shopping may, in fact, have something to do with the types of products on their holiday shopping lists. In a separate June 2016 study from Salesforce, which focused on overall shopping habits, an overwhelming majority of US internet users said they prefer to buy clothing, home goods and luxury items in-store rather than through other channels, like an ecommerce site.

Despite those findings, it’s important to note that while eMarketer is forecasting moderate growth (about 3.3%) for overall holiday retail sales, ecommerce will rise rapidly—an anticipated jump of 17.2%, the highest rate since 2011.