Person, Please: Not surprisingly, customers calling up a business want to talk to a person, and not a machine. A survey from Clutch found that more than one-fifth of respondents valued human interaction more than any other item when getting in touch with a human customer service representative. They valued that over friendliness, clarity and fast service.
Primed for Groceries: Amazon is the sector leader for online sales of food and beverages in the US, controlling 18% of market share, according to figures from Packaged Facts. Walmart is in second place with a 9% share.
We Want BOPUS: A new holiday trend report from Kibo found that a majority (58%) of consumers are planning to use the option to buy online, pick up in-store during the upcoming holiday shopping season, an increase of 25% from last year. Respondents listed savings on shipping costs, in-store time savings and convenience as the top reasons they were embracing BOPUS.
A Phone Supreme: Mobile phones are outdoing PCs in one significant way. GlobalWebIndex reports that internet users performed an average of 14 activities on mobile devices in Q2, more than the average of 12 for desktops and laptops, and the 3.2 on tablets. Smartphones are becoming the dominant device for online activities, but PCs still remain an important part of the mix, the company concluded.
China Heads Upmarket: Data from Counterpoint Technology Market Research revealed that the fastest growing smartphone price band in China was the $300 to $399 segment, which grew 24% year over year in Q3 2017. The only other price segment to see growth was at the low end in the $100 to $199 band. This is a sign that middle-class phone buyers are veering toward more affordable flagship devices from domestic OEMs, Counterpoint said.