Desktop and laptop PCs continue to be the main vehicle, but use of tablets for holiday e-commerce is on the rise, which means it will be important for retailers “to present a consistent experience across all channels to meet consumer expectations,” according to the results of a multi-device holiday shopping survey conducted by commerce-enabled digital catalogs and publications provider Zmags.
Forty-four percent of survey respondents plan to use tablets for holiday shopping; 19% of this group plan to do more holiday shopping via tablets this year than they did last year, according to Zmags, which surveyed 550 US mobile device owners who plan to shop online this holiday season.
Additional highlights of Zmags’, “2012 Holiday Shopping Survery” include:
- Forty percent of respondents still look to magazines and catalogs for gift ideas and inspiration, but interestingly 42% of them do not plan to make any purchases from these publications this year.
- Online catalogs and gift guides are the second most popular holiday shopping destination among desktop/laptop shoppers (behind retailer websites). Across devices, 63% of the online shoppers surveyed plan to shop using online catalogs, gift guides and “look books”, coming in ahead of social media channels.
- Detailed product reviews are one of the most important requirements for online shoppers, but lack of product information is their biggest gripe, cited among 39% of online shoppers.
“We set out to get a better understanding of how U.S. consumers plan to shop this holiday season and what their preferences are when browsing for and buying gifts,” explained Zmags president Scott Bleczinski.
“What we found particularly interesting is that consumers still look to print magazines and catalogs for inspiration, yet few will actually use them to make their gift purchases. To succeed this holiday season, retailers will need to provide the immersive, inspiring experience that shoppers get from catalogs across all of their shoppable channels – Web, mobile and social.”
