US shoppers behavior changes 2014 report presents a trend that I noticed a few years ago. We are using more and more mobile phones, smart phones and tablets in our purchasing journey.

I found a great report : Mapping the US Shopper’s Mobile Path to Purchase prepared by DNC recently.

Please find below the most important findings:

  • In 2014, 29% of US consumers said smartphones were the most important shopping tool up from 23% in 2013.
  • 42% of consumers consider a mobile device as the most important resource for a purchase decision just behind laptops and desktops at 43%.
  • 60% of US consumers claim to have used only their smartphones when deciding which restaurant to visit.
  • 40% of US consumers claim to have used only smartphones when deciding on their choice of entertainment.
  • 35% of US consumers say they used only smartphones when deciding on which car to buy.

US shoppers behavior changes 2014

  • 68% of US consumers conduct pre-purchase research on their smartphones at some point in their purchase journey.
  • Among US consumers who research on their smartphones, 37% make the final purchase in a store followed by 35% who make the final purchase on their smartphones.
  • 67% of US consumers conduct pre-purchase research on their tablets at some point in their purchase journey.
  • Among consumers who use tablets for research, 41% end up making the final purchase on tablets, 33% make the final purchase in store, and 32% use the laptop to make the final purchase.

final purchase location 2014

  • 74% of US consumers conduct pre-purchase research on their laptops at some point in their purchase journey.
  • Among consumers who use laptops for research, 52% make the final purchase on laptops followed by 37% who make the final purchase in store and 21% use their tablets to make the final purchase.
  • 60% of US shoppers conducted research in stores.
  • Among the store researchers, 57% end up buying from the store compared to 29% who buy from their laptops.
  • 53% of US smartphone using shoppers accessed the device when inside their homes in 2014 up from 32% in 2013.
  • 76% of tablet using shoppers accessed the device in their homes in 2014.
  • 49% of entertainment shoppers used their mobile device to browse and see options.
  • 48% of telecom shoppers and 47% of auto shoppers used their mobile device to browse and find options compared to 36% of restaurant shoppers.
  • 58% of US shoppers prefer visiting retailer website for product discovery.
  • 33% of US shoppers preferred to access retailer branded apps.
  • Only 13% of US shoppers prefer to discover products and services through opt-in notifications and alerts.
  • 72% of US consumers use their mobile devices to research electronic products.
  • 57% of shoppers in the clothing category and 46% in the shoes & fashion accessories category use their mobile devices to research products.
  • 46% of US consumers research household items on mobile devices and 45% research appliances to discover possible purchase options.
  • 49% of telecom shoppers conduct in-depth research on mobile devices to narrow down their choices compared to 20% of restaurant goers.
  • 61% of smartphone using shoppers and 50% of tablet using shoppers look up possible locations they can visit near them.
  • 52% of shoppers access smartphones and 44% access tablets to look up directions to local stores.
  • 41% of US shoppers accessed smartphones and 42% accessed tablets to look up reviews and decide on which store to visit.
  • 38% of smartphone using shoppers and 32% of tablet using shoppers called local stores asking for information such as opening and closing times, availability of product, and on-going promotions before deciding to visit.
  • 80% of consumers use mobile devices inside a store to enhance their shopping experience, up from 64% a year ago.
  • The most popular way to use mobile devices while in-store is to comparison shop (59%) followed by searching for coupons (48%) and reviews (47%).
  • Retail stores are the top business venue for consumer mobile usage accounting for 31% of mobile connections followed by restaurants (21%), service-related venues (19%) and financial institutions (15%).
  • 28% of in-store mobile usage happens in clothing stores followed by convenience stores (18%) and specialty stores (12%).
  • 52% of US consumers share retail related posts on social media.
  • 51% of consumers visit social media platforms to post pictures of items they are interested to purchase.
  • Only 18% of consumers visit social media sites to post videos of the products they are considering for purchase.
  • On average, 62% of consumers who used a mobile device during the shopping process made a purchase. An additional 16% deferred purchase for a future date.
  • 49% of smartphone using shoppers and 42% of tablet using shoppers complete their purchase within an hour or less of using their mobile device to start browsing for options.
  • On average 65% of mobile using shoppers make a purchase on the same day they started browsing for possible options on the device.
  • 23% of US shoppers who used their mobile device inside a retail store made a purchase on the device itself up from 12% a year ago.
  • For both smartphones and tablets people are most comfortable spending $100-$249. Smartphones outpace tablets for purchases under $250, while tablets outpace smartphones for purchase over $250.

. Today I read an interesting article on HBR  about negative feedback.

I don’t want to copy their thoughts but I would like to add my own ones.

Negative feedback

Currently we afraid about negative people, negative feedback, negative emotions, etc. I see it like a “positive trend” that it is not always a positive and good for us and our businesses. Of course there is another trend in social media and online media overall – haters…- people that hate everything, comment with anger, envy,etc. We can easily find such examples in our world.

On the other hand we forget about the constructive critique than brings development and changes our world in a positive way. All inventions come from a critique of a lack of some needs fulfillment and dreams.

I don’t think here about the straight critique of people’s work, talents or their traits that can damage a very fragile person and stop her/his development. It has to be done in a very tactful way. Everybody is unique with his/her skills, talents and experience. We have to respect each other but also constantly develop our skills. Young people should learn it especially. The competition is growing rapidly. They have to compete with all global generation that has similar skills and possibilities.

I think here about the critique of company processes, customer service, products.

The business consultancy is something like that  – we look  at the company’s issue and analyse, criticize and recommend solutions.

Our customers are our consultant very often. Simply we forget about it.

Recently I had a B2B client that lost his 70% customers. Of course he wanted to know why.

After small talks to his team, I got information that all his team members knew about this change half a year before their customers left. Can you imagine?

And they didn’t do anything to stop or find out why. The employees thought that their services/products are too expensive in comparison to the competition. But they didn’t ask straightforward their customers if they were satisfied or not.

This is the reason if your company gets the direct critique or feedback, it is a positive act.

Simply you can change something faster or prepare yourself for changes ( if they are long lasting like a needed investment). You can get loyal customers if you can help them and solve their problems.

If employees of the company that I described before shared the information and knowledge with his boss, they would prevent a situation of losing rapidly 70% of customers. Maybe they could change their products, price list, internal processes or prepare themselves for new ones, or postpone their leaving.You can imagine how difficult is to get new customers, how costly it is and time consuming in B2B service.

After my analysis we found out that not only too high price was the main issue.

There were others:

  • lack of flexibility in solving issues
  • poor customer service – answering after 24 hours; lack of nice atmosphere and simply chatting that customers needed
  • lack of regular reviews of customer portfolio: most profitable customers, most demanding vs. cost, time spent
  • lack of effort of getting new customers
  • lack of regular promotions and marketing activities
  • lack of investment in online tools that people prefer now
  • and many others

My advice is to take a negative feedback from your customers as a gift. It can Negative feedback is positiveshow you an issue in your business very often before you can notice it in your financials and statistics.

Social marketing can help in getting some trends for your business if you plan a long term business. You can learn what people like, what is interesting, how to engage them, even they are not your customers now because of their age.

I see that the most important is your product and service. If you can excel and present it in a marvelous way, you will win. People love unique and great designed things. Look at Apple, Samsung, Boca do Lobo. They have all these parts plus great operational processes.

I wish you and myself to get to such level.:)

Some nice videos that present social media and customer vs. producer relationship.
Sometimes it is really simple –  Listen, Communicate, Share, Help others.

To create your own social media strategy consider the below 6 steps:

  1. Educate yourself with social media:  social networking sites, blogs, wikis, community forums and RSS syndication. Business leaders are experimenting with new methods to communicate in a bi-directional exchange, and to engage the customer to share knowledge.
  2. Determine whether your target market is getting social. Many types of products and services, online reviews become the most sought after and trusted source for accelerating buyer education and short-listing product finalists.
  3. Find out how to align your strategic objectives with social media tools and technologies. For example if your objectives include increasing the marketing budget ROI, generating more qualified leads, growing customer share or decreasing customer churn, you should be able to find a direct and measurable link between social media tools and achieving your objectives.
  4. Leverage case studies and the successes of others to replicate your own social media accomplishments.
  5. Start a blog. Social customers want open and transparent access to the executive ranks of their solution providers. Blog is a simple and effective communication channel to engage your target market and make the social relationship with customers.
  6. Start using crm software and linkage to social media portals like twitter clients below:
  1. TweetDeck, www.tweetdeck.com
  2. Tweetie, www.atebits.com
  3. HootSuite, www.hootsuite.com
  4. Twhirl, www.twhirl.org
  5. Twitterfon, www.twitterfon.net
  6. Seesmic, www.seesmic.com
  7. Ping.fm, www.ping.fm
  8. UberTwitter, www.ubertwitter.com
  9. Twitterrific, www.twitterrific.com
  10. TwitterFox, www.twitterfox.net
  11. twAitter, www.twaitter.com

Good tips about social media from other blogs:

50 Instagram Marketing TIPS