Mobile Devices Set To Deliver A Merry Holiday Season To Marketers

BURLINGTON, Mass., Oct. 30, 2012

"Tablets, smartphones, display, video and social as digital platforms magnify the opportunities for marketers to engage with and even hyper-target consumers while they research and actively shop for holiday gifts," said Mark Kaefer, marketing director, Burst Media. "The savvy marketer should take advantage of all the opportunities that now exist within the wired home, from the Xbox to the iPad, and wow holiday consumers with creative that provides a wealth of product information, social features and the opportunity to make a purchase."

Mobile devices also play a role in the in-store shopping experience, as more than one-third (36.7%) of holiday shoppers have used a smartphone and/or tablet to aid with shopping at a physical retail location. Two-in-five (39.4%) shoppers who use a mobile device to assist with in-store shopping do so to research and compare prices of different stores, 37.1% research and compare the prices of different brands, and 1-in-3 (32.6%) access coupons and/or promotion codes.

In addition to the strides made on the mobile front, shopping online for the holidays in general is popular as ever. Nearly 9-in-10 (87.2%) holiday shoppers will go online to research and/or shop for products and gifts this season—a  figure that is up nearly 10% from Burst's 2011 holiday study. Three-in-five (61.5%) respondents who turn to the web to shop will make either more or the same amount of holiday purchases online in 2012 vs. 2011. Among respondents reporting a household income of $100,000 or more, 78.9% will also make more or the same amount of holiday purchases online this year vs. last.

One half (52.2%) of holiday shoppers say they "like" or follow brand-name products on social media such as Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest. Within this group, 44.8% say they "like" or follow brands to access special offers—but women are much more likely than men (51.3% vs. 36.7%, respectively) to do so.

At the macroeconomic level, nearly 3-in-5 (58.4%) respondents to the Burst survey will spend more or the same on the holidays in 2012 compared to 2011. Marketers and retailers should rejoice: this figure includes 19.0% of consumers who plan on spending more this year vs. last year—a nice uptick from 2011, when the number of respondents who said they planned to spend more (vs. 2010) was just 11.2%.

In addition, at the time of the survey, 89.4% of holiday shoppers reported that they still had items to check off their lists—indicating that the holiday consumer market is very much in play.