Mobile 2014: Mapping The Customer Journey - Dan Hodges

There has been much written about the embracing of smartphones and its impact on the customer shopping journey. Are consumers really using smartphones as much as it is claimed or is this just more industry hype? If shoppers are using their smartphones for shopping, what are they doing? How many shoppers are using their smartphones and what is the impact on your business?

The answers to these questions can be found by looking at key shopping demographics and behaviors over the past year. The period of May 2014 was compared to May 2013 using comScore to draw some comparisons. Here is what we found.

The 18-44 demographic is at center of mobile shopping.

The research shows that people in the 18-44 demo are using smartphones to check product availability, compare prices, locate stores, make shopping lists, research products and purchase goods and services.

The research highlights that smartphone shoppers ages 18-44 are using their smartphone daily and weekly for shopping. They are using it for higher value purchases such as watches and jewelry, which is a significant price point shift. It is important to note that once an activity becomes a habit, it becomes an important fact of life on the customer journey.

Men are the most active mobile shoppers.

The research points out that men are more active than women in checking product availability, comparing prices, finding stores, researching products and purchasing on their smartphones. Women use their smartphones for making shopping lists.

A major increase in the number mobile shoppers

The number of consumers using their smartphones for shopping and the shopping process has increased an astonishing thirty percent over the last year. The key areas in the shopping process were identified in the analysis below:

What should you do?

The above research demonstrates that mobile influence in the customer journey is increasing at a rapid rate of change. In fact, for a great many shoppers, smartphones are already an essential tool in the customer journey.

Walmart reported that over the Thanksgiving holiday, fifty-three percent of Walmart's website (out of a whopping 400 million page views) were accessed via mobile. Walmart also notes that new customers making purchases for the first time on mobile is up three times from the previous year.

How should your company approach this rapidly changing customer journey? Walt Disney offer this advice "We keep moving forward, opening new doors, and doing new things, because we're curious and curiosity keeps leading us down new paths."

Dan Hodges is CEO and Founder, Consumers in Motion LLC. He can be reached at dan@consumersinmotion.com

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