Shopping with smartphones and tablets: focus on mobile shopper groups

The tablet in particular is being used more and more for shopping, especially among the younger target group. Clothes and shoes are particularly popular.FROM NICOLE RÜDLIN* AND SUSANNE FITTKAU**At a conference in San Francisco at the beginning of last year, Apple CEO Tim Cook described the iPad as the "poster child of the post-PC era" due to its fascinating user experience. Market experts are divided on whether tablets and smartphones - whether from Apple or other manufacturers - will actually replace PCs and laptops, but the fact is that mobile devices are already having a remarkable impact on online usage scenarios and shopping situations. The relatively homogeneous, adequately researched usage situation on stationary devices is being replaced by increasing fragmentation.Smartphone ownership tripledThe fact that the smartphone and tablet boom in Germany continues unabated is also confirmed by the results of the biannual W3B study: as the current survey from October/November 2013 shows, in which over 60,000 German internet users were questioned, the proportion of smartphone owners among online users has almost tripled in the last three years.This development is even more dynamic for tablet PCs: the proportion of tablet users has practically doubled from year to year. The enormous market growth means that the profiles and requirements of mobile shoppers are also constantly changing.

65% of respondents own a smartphone and 33.7% already own a tablet. This is a significant increase compared to previous years.Young mobile shoppersThe demographic structures of mobile shopper groups still differ significantly from those of the average online shopper. A good one in two smartphone shoppers today is under 30 years old. By comparison, in the group of "classic online shoppers" using a PC/laptop, a quarter are under 30 years old, while more than one in two tablet shoppers is between 30 and 50 years old and an above-average number are academics. The usage situations - @home versus on the move - and the products that are purchased on the move also have a strong influence on user and purchasing behavior.Shopping habits with mobile devicesAlthough the first smartphones were sold many years before the first tablet PCs and are much more widespread today, most tablets are used more actively, more intensively and in a more versatile way - this also applies in particular to online shopping. While more than one in two smartphone owners today use their device for shopping, two thirds of tablet owners already do so.

Over a third of tablet owners have already made more than 10 purchases. With smartphones, the figure is just under a quarter.People often shop from homeWith tablet PCs, the majority of purchases (80%) are made from home. Only a few actually use the device for mobile shopping or shopping on the move. In contrast, the scenarios for smartphone purchases are much more diverse. Nevertheless, not every purchase made via smartphone is "mobile" in the sense of "on the move / away from home." The survey results for the last mobile purchase made show an equal distribution - half were made at home, the other half away from home. The place and situation of purchase and the products purchased are not independent of each other: while apps and fashion are at the top of the list of products ordered for smartphone purchases made at home, books are at the top of the list for "real" mobile purchases made away from home, alongside travel/flight tickets.Demand for travel and flight tickets via smartphonesA comparison of smartphone and tablet purchases by product group shows that there are also differences in purchasing habits. For example, travel/flight tickets and paid apps were purchased particularly frequently via smartphones. In contrast, clothing and shoes are by far the most popular products purchased via tablet.

While tablet users primarily purchase clothing, shoes and e-books, smartphones are used to buy travel and flight tickets as well as paid apps. Spontaneous shopping via smartphoneThe intensity of purchase preparation also depends on the device. While three quarters of shoppers used a PC, laptop or tablet to gather information in advance, only 66% did so for smartphones. Purchases via smartphone are therefore more often spontaneous than with other devices, and the intensity of purchase preparation via smartphone in particular depends heavily on which product was purchased. For example, only one in two smartphone shoppers surveyed stated that they had obtained information in advance when booking a travel product (e.g. train or plane ticket, hotel room, package tour), compared to 61% for fashion products, 70% for books and 84% for technology products. Both the stages and the length of the customer journey therefore vary significantly depending on the product group; it can be assumed that the information paths and times vary greatly.Evaluating the status quoThe number and variety of online usage and purchasing situations will continue to increase in the future, depending on end devices, usage situations and products. With the increasing spread and further development of new device types, new user and customer types, usage and purchasing preferences are also emerging. These should be known in order to design attractive and therefore successful websites and web stores for smartphone and tablet user groups.Evaluation of the target groupsOnline and mobile marketing and sales must be evaluated with regard to the specific products and target groups and adapted if necessary. The focus here is on the following key questions:- Which end devices are the target groups equipped with (today and in the near future)?- How do they use their mobile and stationary Internet end devices for purchase preparation and purchase/booking?- How are online and mobile marketing measures perceived and evaluated?- Do the purchase/booking options on the various end devices meet the requirements of the target groups?- Are they tailored to the respective products and usage scenarios?ConclusionPurchase preparation and purchasing on the internet and mobile web are becoming increasingly complex in terms of end devices, usage situations and user types. It can be assumed that this development will intensify, not only due to the increasing spread of smartphones and tablets, but also because the next trend is already on the horizon. "Wearables" - small portable devices for Internet access - in the form of data glasses, smartwatches and fitness wristbands are predicted to make a breakthrough in the next few years. According to analysts from Juniper Research, wearable devices will be worth 19 billion dollars in 2018. A further step into the post-PC era, in which the right people want to be "provided" with suitable offers at the right time, in the right place and on the right device.___*Nicole Rüdlin is in constant contact with industry experts in her role as head of the e-commerce trade fair Internet World and scouts for trending topics in the areas of online marketing, e-commerce, mobile business and social media. The business administration graduate (FH) has been working as a topic scout for the events of Neue Mediengesellschaft Ulm mbH for six years and has been in charge of this area since 2011.**Susanne Fittkau supports clients such as Beiersdorf, Cortal Consors, Deutsche Bahn, eBay, Nestlé, Otto, Telekom Deutschland and TUI in the user- and customer-oriented optimization of their online activities as Managing Director of the Internet market research company Fittkau & Maaß Consulting. She will be a speaker at the Internet World Congress on February 25 and 26, 2014 in Munich, where she will present current study results on the information and purchasing behavior of smartphone and tablet users in the post-PC era in her presentation "Mobile & Multiscreen Commerce." More information and registration: www.internetworld-messe.de