Tablets and Apps: Two Key Players in Holiday Retailers Mobile Marketing Arsenal

I will refrain from trotting out the latest and greatest mobile statistics. Surely by now you are intimately aware of the fact that, well pretty much the entire world is on a mobile device for essentially the entire day.

And yes, I will stop calling you Shirley.

In October of last year, Oracle Marketing Cloud, in partnership with Edison Research conducted an online survey of a 1,000 holiday shoppers (18+ years old) when most people had not completed all of their holiday shopping. Then, we conducted a second online quantitative study just a few days before the holidays.

The idea behind was to gauge the difference between what holiday shoppers said they would vs. what they actually did.

We gift wrapped the results in a nice, one-size-fits-all eBook entitled Turning 2014's Holiday Trends into 2015 Revenue. Definitely do yourself a favor and download it today as we not only get into the results but also the ways to capitalize on the findings as you plan your 2015 holiday season.

Tablets and Apps: Two Key Players in Holiday Retailers Mobile Marketing Arsena

Under the guise of "what consumers actually did" re: last year's holiday shopping season, we uncovered some very interesting things. First and foremost, there was a tremendous amount of mobile shopping that was done on the couch by consumers who were essentially immobile—but still using a mobile device.

First let's take a look at holiday shoppers as it relates to smartphones vs. tablets.

As you can see there's a 10 percentage point difference between ownership of smartphone and tablet, but take a look at that gap starts to close as we look at each device when it comes to shopping in general terms.

Now look at the numbers specific to 2014 holiday shoppers.

Obviously the gap lessens each time. The tablet has become a very important part of the holiday shopping experience and is something to remember when it comes to responsive design of your brand's overall mobile experience.

An Appetite For Apps

When it comes to mobile apps, the chart below should speak for itself.

This is one of the more remarkable numbers to come out of this research. It is crystal clear that the app experience is absolutely crucial and one that is becoming increasingly familiar to consumers who are spending money during the holiday shopping season.

One final thing to leave you with and it comes from Tom Webster, Vice President of Strategy for Edison Research: “Every moment is a mobile moment. Every moment can be an online moment no matter what channel you’re using, thanks to smartphones and tablets.”

The above are just a few examples of the findings from our research.

Download all the findings and how to use them in 2015 holiday planning today!