Mobile Ordering: The stats say it all!

By Phil Talbot – go to guy | mobile ordering | saavi

Now do something about it.

Much has been said about the growing trend of mobile ordering and how there is now an irreversible technological shift from desktop PCs to smartphones. AdMedia Partners observed that 25% of international media and marketing executives see mobile as the most disruptive force in their industry. You can bet smaller businesses are also in on the act.

The numbers confirming mobile’s irreversible role in business can be overwhelming. Here are some of the mobile statistics compiled by Digby.com (we just supplied the categories):

Showrooming

(‘Showrooming,’ for those not familiar with the term, is checking out a product inside a real store and then searching and ordering online to get cheaper prices for the same product.)

• • One-in-five consumers do it. (Source: Aprimo/Teradata and Forrester Research, 2012)
• • 43% of U.S. adults have showroomed. (Source: Harris Poll, 2012)
• • 46% of showroomers ended up buying in-store (11-point increase from 2011). (Source: Pew, 2013)

Smartphone adoption

• • Mobile and desktop use could equal each other in two years if they both maintain their current usage trends. (Source: eMarketer, 2012)
• • By 2014, desktop usage is expected to be overtaken by mobile internet. (Source: Microsoft Tag, 2012)

Shopper Savviness

• • 80% of consumers shop with smartphones. (Source: comScore, 2012)
• • Almost half of shoppers think they know better than store employees. (Source: Motorola, 2013)
• • 2 out of 5 shoppers consult 3 or more channels before buying, compared to 1 out of 10 in 2002. (Source: Conlumino and Webloyalty, 2012)
• • 24% of consumers visited a retailer’s site via mobile over Thanksgiving & Black Friday (up from 14.3% in 2011). (Source: IBM, 2012)

Wallets and Coupons

• • Half of today’s smartphone users are expected to use mobile wallets as their preferred payments method within five years. (Source: Carlisle & Gallagher Consulting Group, 2012)
• • Rapid adoption of smartphones is expected to increase the number of US mobile coupon users from 12.3 million in 2010 to 53.2 million in 2014. (Source: eMarketer, 2013)

Use of mobile ordering apps

• • Most of consumers’ time is taken up by retailers’ apps (27%), then online marketplace apps (20%), price comparison apps (14%), and daily deal apps (13%). (Source: AdMedia Partners, 2013)
• • Consumers spent six times longer in retailers’ apps in December compared to last year. (Source: Flurry, 2013)
• • Mobile app usage time is beginning to challenge television: consumers are spending 127 minutes per day (compared to 94 minutes a day last year) vs 168 minutes spent on watching television every day. (Source: Flurry, 2012)

Benefits for brick-and-mortar stores

• • 65% of U.S. shoppers research products and services on a PC and make a purchase in-store. (Source: Cisco, 2013)
• • 48% use or would like to use a smartphone to shop while in-store or on the go. (Source: Cisco, 2013)
• • 80% of smartphone owners want more mobile-optimized product information while they’re shopping in stores. (Source: Moosylvania, 2013)
• • 54% use or would like to use digital touchscreens in-store. (Source: Cisco, 2013)

Potential revenues

• • Cyber Monday sales up 30% and mobile sales up 96% since 2011. (Source: National Retail Federation, 2012)
• • Holiday sales expected to reach $54.47 billion, up 16.8% over 2011 levels. (Source: eMarketer, 2012)
• • Mobile searches related to restaurants have a conversion rate of 90% with 64% converting within the hour. (Source: xAd and Telemetrics, 2012)

New numbers are coming in all the time. A lot of data are available online for making infographics. You can even create your own chart from data at Google Mobile Planet. Here’s the chart we made from the data on how important mobile phones are to Americans:

If you own a business, the bottomline to all these data, of course, is what should be done in order to take advantage of the mobile revolution. Should you offer a mobile-friendly website? Should you offer a mobile ordering app? What other strategies can you use? Companies like SAAVI can help you come up with solutions to these questions.

Phil Talbot is founder of SAAVI – the mobile ordering specialists and the resident expert in mobile ordering systems. You can follow SAAVI on facebook.