dealnews Trends: Mobile Shopping Soars on Summer Holidays
'Tis the season to ... shop on your phone? It's not surprising that the number of dealnews visitors decreases on holidays. After all, people aren't anchored to their computers on a day off.
Kudos to our readers, though, for having mastered the art of mobile deal hunting this season; not only did mobile site traffic increase dramatically on summer holidays, but the number of mobile visits to the site was even greater than those we received on President's Day (a similar 3-day weekend during the winter that would, presumably, encourage more people to stay indoors). What's more, as overall site traffic dips, mobile traffic spikes. This data gives us the impression that our readers are very dedicated deal hunters and take advantage of holiday sales while out soaking up the summer sun.
The number of people accessing dealnews via a mobile device on summer holidays is much higher than average weekdays, too. But just how much of a jump in traffic did we see on the summer holidays of Memorial Day, Independence Day, and Labor Day? Take a look at our mobile traffic infographic below for more insight.
On Memorial Day 2012, mobile traffic accounted for 20.75% of overall site traffic on dealnews. This surge in traffic resulted in a 42% increase over the average mobile traffic from the previous three respective weekdays; it also attributed to a 66% increase in traffic from Memorial Day last year.
The same kinds of site traffic increase occurred on both Independence Day and Labor Day as well. On July 4th, 2012 we saw 22.48% of traffic come from a mobile device, up from 14.6% last year. In 2011, Labor Day saw a total of 13.93% traffic via mobile devices, and we can only speculate the increase in percentage we'll see this year.
But these numbers aren't strange. They are, in fact, in sync with greater trends on mobile shopping. According to IBM online retail sales from mobile devices have doubled in the last year, increasing from 5.5% in December 2010 to 11% in December 2011. Furthermore, a survey conducted by Nielsen early this year indicated that 79% of smartphone and tablet owners in the United States have used their mobile devices for shopping-related activities — 29% of which were smartphone owners who used their device to actually purchase an item. A general comfort level with mobile shopping seems to be on the rise, and corroborates the spike in mobile traffic we see on dealnews as well.
We also noted that mobile shopping trends vary by device. On our site, iPad, iPhone, and Android traffic all increased on Memorial Day 2012 at a rate of 38%, 15%, and 13%, respectively, compared to the average of the previous three respective weekdays. For iPads, that is a whopping 102% increase over Memorial Day mobile traffic last year. iPhone and Android traffic increases from last year are also substantial at 45% and 68%, respectively.
So, as you too become a pro at navigating critical mobile deal hunting and buying, remember that no time or non-workplace location is an obstacle. In fact, your phone makes any dealnews bargain fair game. We have the mobile traffic to prove it.
For more consumer price trend information, charts, infographics, and dealnews data, check out our consumer research page.
Follow @dealnews on Twitter for the latest roundups, price trend info, and stories. You can also sign up for an email alert for all dealnews features.
Sign In or Register