Mobile Devices are Now Santa’s (and Everyone’s) Little Helpers

Every holiday season, consumers are looking for the easiest ways to go head-on with holiday shopping. The simple solution…smartphones. It is perhaps the most important and widely-used technology tool for today’s holiday shopper.

Yahoo! did some digging to figure out how consumers plan to use their smartphones during the upcoming holiday season that officially kicks-off this coming (black) Friday. The Holiday Shopping Intentions and Attitudes Survey¸ conducted with Ipsos OTX MediaCT, concludes that nearly two out of three Internet-enabled mobile phone owners will use their device while shopping this holiday season.  This is especially true (68%) among those who start their holiday shopping before and around Thanksgiving.

Below are some of the other more interesting points from the survey on how people will use their mobile devices while shopping:

o   Using tools and apps, ranging from Map usage to mobile click-to-call features (44%)

o   Communicating with others through mobile messaging (40%)

o   Finding deals (32%)

o   On-the-go comparison shopping for best prices (32%)

o   Take/send pictures of potential purchases to share with others (29%)

o   Read user reviews (20%)

Our Yahoo! Messenger, Yahoo! Mail and Flickr apps are our best holiday helpers this year. Whether you want face-to-face video calling to get your sister’s opinion on a sweater for mom, or to share photos along the way, all of these apps can be downloaded today to help ease your shopping worries later.

Good luck out there!

Cheers,

Ashmeed Ali

Strategic Research & Insights