Online Shopping & Spending Trends

How do you plan to shop this year? Are you going to be hitting the mall three days before Christmas or lining up your orders online to ensure delivery before the holidays? Have you noticed your shopping habits changing as technology advances, or do you feel unaffected by the growing number of options to shop through the Internet? Maybe you find it easier to compare prices with your handheld before making your move at a nearby store? Well, maybe that’s true if you’re a man, as recent studies suggest.

PriceGrabber.com recently released a new report analyzing more than 2,300 people’s predicted spending habits online when it comes to holiday gifts. Although the number of responses indicating that they would do most of their gift-shopping online only rose 1% in the past year (from 89% to 90%), the number of people indicating they’d shop at physical scores dropped more dramatically to 48% rather than 65%. Also noteworthy is the fact that consumers will be using their smartphones to shop 4% more than they did in 2010. And yes, men are more likely to do comparison shopping before buying an item at its physical vending locale (77% to 71%) while women are more interested in finding and applying coupons to buy through shopping apps (59% to 51%).

The reasons they give are that it’s more convenient to shop online than travel to various stores and they also want to avoid crowds. Even so, despite the global nature of the Internet, consumers most commonly flock to local shopping sites. And 59% look for local deals online when shopping.

What does this mean for you? It might mean it’s time to reevaluate that marketing budget and move some more of your holiday advertising to the Web. And of course there’s also a bigger piece of the pie necessary for mobile marketing, too. One great thing about Web advertising is that you can pay for ads to run just through the holiday on site you know your audience is likely to scout. You can get your brand out there while traffic is high during the holidays to improve recognition and awareness while associating with websites that have to do with your company and product and image.

Of course, all of that takes a comprehensive understanding of who your audience is and where – and how – they’ll be shopping this season. Ask Mad 4 Marketing how we can advise you to make smart media placement choices to capitalize on consumer trends. There’s still plenty of time to buy relevant space and set up profitable positioning in time for the onslaught of online spenders.

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