U.S. smartphone penetration is nearing 50 percent, so it’s no surprise that the adoption of mobile shopping tools has been rapid. African Americans and Hispanics are adopting new shopping technologies at a faster rate than Caucasians, with 18 percent of African American shoppers and 16 percent of Hispanic shoppers using their mobile device to make purchases as compared to 10 percent of Caucasians.
One in five African American shoppers (21 percent versus 13 percent of Caucasian shoppers) use their phone to read product reviews and maintain shopping lists and one in five Hispanic shoppers (20 percent versus 13 percent of Caucasian shoppers) use their mobile device to compare prices on products. Despite smartphone penetration skewing lower among African Americans and Hispanics than Caucasians, both are leading the charge by using mobile as a means to access the digital world of shopping aids.
“Basic mobile communication through SMS and mobile websites should be the points of entry. Mobile marketing to multicultural shoppers is a huge opportunity,” said Martin Ferro, senior account planner for Velocidad, a Hispanic promotional, retail and shopper marketing capability of The Integer Group.
Additional findings on mobile shopping from The Checkout:
- Almost as many shoppers are using coupons from email and e-newsletters (49 percent) as they are from the Sunday paper (57 percent).
- Men might be the traditional lovers of tech toys, but when it comes to using technology to enhance shopping, women are ahead of the curve.
- Having children in the household drives accelerated adoption of digital technologies to deliver shopping solutions for busy moms and dads.
“Digital shoppers are just shoppers,” said Ben Kennedy, group director of Mobile Marketing at Integer. “Digital shopping tools are illustrative of the continued blurring of the on- and offline spaces. Today’s reality is that shoppers use whatever tools they have on hand to make them smarter, savvier shoppers.”
Data for The Checkout comes from a national survey conducted by Integer and M/A/R/C where consumers are asked about their shopping attitudes, shopping behaviors, and economic outlook. Topics range from criteria shoppers use to select retailers, to which in-store stimulus is most likely to drive purchase, to factors that might lead shoppers to leave an aisle empty-handed.
