Accenture has put out a report that talks about how consumers will use their laptops, tablets, and smartphones to shop this holiday season. The survey shows, in Canada at least, that 75% of survey participants plan to “webroom” first. That means they will research and review the items they are considering to purchase online before they go to a store to purchase them. Another 75% will also do “showrooming” – finding a great gift in a physical store, and then going online to buy it at the best price.
64% said they would use their personal computer at home to make the purchase online. And 30% will use their tablet or smarphone to compare prices while they are in the store.
“More people are using smartphones as part of a seamless shopping experience to get immediate pricing and product information in the palm of their hands, while at home or in a store,” said Kelly Askew, managing director, retail management consulting at Accenture in Canada. “That means Canada’s retail sector is more competitive than ever before, and stores must have a robust online, mobile and social media strategy to capture holiday spending dollars.”
Another interesting finding: 74% plan on purchasing a gift card this holiday season, and the majority of those gift card purchases will be in the store as opposed to online. 50% of those buying a gift card will be be buying up to 3 gift cards in all. (In Canada, the gift card industry is estimated to be about $6 billion, and in the U.S., approx $86 billion. About 40% of all gift cards in North America are expected to go unredeemed!)
E-Commerce: Defining “Webroom” and “Showrooming” originally appeared on Jugnoo Blog - Social Media is a Business: Social Media Presence Management under a Creative Commons license.
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