Black Friday's big role in making or breaking fiscal years for retailers is the stuff of legend. Thanksgiving weekend in 2015 will be no different, with consumer choices – especially those of Millennials – influencing not only where people shop, but how they shop. And the data shows that this year's battle for holiday dollars will be fought on smartphones and tablets.
During the 2015 holiday season, 53 percent of Millennials with smartphones and tablets are expected to do more shopping on their devices than they do in brick-and-mortar stores, according to new survey results released by the Waltham, Mass.-based software performance company Dynatrace. The findings showed that 18-34-year-olds rely on mobile devices, both to make purchases and look for deals as they peruse store aisles in person. And that trend has far-reaching implications for the years ahead.
"We believe what Millennials show us today will show us what everyone will want tomorrow," said Erwan Paccard, the director of omnichannel strategy at Dynatrace.
Paccard predicted that Millennials' tendencies to shop via mobile screens will continue to grow in the years to come. The companies that choose to adapt will have much to gain, while those who lag behind stand to lose business.
Retailers who focus on traditional competitors, rather than heavyweight players such as Amazon.com and Google, for setting their performance benchmarks may face the most risk, according to Paccard. He assessed that focusing on old competitors who lag behind larger players can lead to systems and standards that fail to meet consumers' expectations.
As the comScore numbers for September show in the chart below, the biggest U.S. retailers online are already catering to majority-mobile audiences.
Retailer web traffic
Create bar charts
"People preferred well-performing apps and websites," said Paccard, discussing his own research. Performance issues can determine whether or not someone can complete a purchase in 20-30 seconds, and that mean the difference between a transaction being left complete or incomplete.
Retailers, meanwhile, have a lot at stake as they prepare to make those transactions possible. The National Retail Federation released its own survey findings on Thursday, indicating that it expects to see 135.8 million active shoppers in stores and online over the course of the four-day Thanksgiving weekend. Moreover, the organization expects to see as many as 183.8 million shoppers active on Cyber Monday.
Among those shoppers will be 77.9 percent of 18-24-year-olds and 77.4 percent of 25-34-year-olds, according to the NRF.
"Millennials love shopping in stores and online over Thanksgiving weekend for several reasons, including the opportunities afforded to them that allow them to splurge on ‘non-gifts’ for themselves and even the potential to sleep in on Black Friday after having spent the night before bouncing from store to store," said Prosper Insights & Analytics Principal Analyst Pam Goodfellow. "For these adults, it’s less about making room for pumpkin pie and more about going out with friends, checking out the deals through their mobile phones and experiencing retailers’ night owl hours and perhaps making a dent in their shopping lists."
Goodfellow also anticipates online shopping to become more dominant.
"Given how shoppers today overall gravitate towards all things digital, there’s a high likelihood online shopping will be bigger than ever over the holiday weekend and on Cyber Monday," she said.
↧