Five Disruptive Holiday Shopping Trends

The growing use of smartphones and easier shopping apps from the likes of Amazon have changed the way we buy merchandise, making us more apt to comparison shop.

Image: Lenestan/Shutterstock

As retailers look ahead to the big season, the talk of the industry this year is how to deal with a customer who wants to buy anytime, anywhere, and one who is making decisions based on social connections.

Here are five types of shoppers expected to have a big impact on holiday shopping this year.

1. The Mobile Shopper: The growing use of smartphones and easier shopping apps from the likes of Amazon have changed the way we buy merchandise, making us more apt to shop and browse on our devices. “Mobile has changed the game by letting consumers walk around the stores while being able to check prices,” Jill Puleri, vice president and global retail leader of IBM Global Business Services, said during a holiday forecast presentation this week. Amazon, which has a mobile shopping and a price comparison app, lets users scan barcodes and snap pictures or even say the name of the product to present the price. Google predicts that 15 percent of total “Black Friday” searches will be from mobile devices based on historical growth rates. Will shoppers buy the item in a store after seeing it close up or, check the price and buy it online if it’s cheaper? For budget-conscious consumers, it may depend on how much time they have. Is it November 23 or December 23?

2. The Socialized Shopper: Customers are growing increasingly likely to check consumer reviews or consult social networking friends when they’re buying in stores or shopping online at home. Puleri says that an IBM survey asked consumers who they trust to consult when making a purchase. Only 18 percent said the manufacturer or retailer, while 45 percent said family and friends. The remaining 37 percent relied on strangers, or other customers. Startups like Sneakpeeq, selected as a Facebook e-commerce partner, keep shoppers browsing, sharing with friends and shopping as if were one big, friendly game, all within the social networking platform.

3. The Turkey Day Shopper: Forget Black Friday. Once the plates are cleared from the table, a growing number of shoppers are going online to start the shopping early. Last year, the top day for social sales for the entire year was Thanksgiving Day itself, with most of the business (82 percent) coming from Facebook, said John Squire, IBM’s director of on-demand digital analytics. What’s more, people who visit a shopping website that they discovered on Facebook buy at two times the rate of others who visit the site without making a social networking site first. Out of all the visitors to a shopping site, only 5 percent, on average, end up making a purchase, but if shopper has been guided there by a friend on social networking site, that number bumps up to 10 percent, he said.

4. The Tablet Shopper: From the iPad to the new Amazon Fire, the tablet could be a really big part of the equation this holiday shopping season. In June 2010, the then-1 million consumers who used iPads bought more merchandise on them than the 42 million consumers carrying mobile phones, said Squire. There’s also a greater conversion rate for those who buy on tablets versus desktops. Forrester Research recently found that only 3 percent of PC users are likely to make a purchase after online browsing, but for those using a tablet, where the images are brighter, bigger and more interactive, the numbers are much higher: 4 or 5 percent.

5. YouTube Shoppers: They may seem silly to some, but YouTube videos posted over the last few years by young, female fashion enthusiasts or so-called “haul videos” are becoming a lucrative enterprise. NPR dubbed them "PG porn." Some shopping enthusiasts who take to YouTube to share what they’ve bought for the cameras actually earn money doing so through YouTube’s “partners program.” J.C. Penney used it in its back-to-school marketing last year. One popular pair of haulers, Elle and Blair went pro: they now have an e-commerce-enabled shopping website for beauty and fashion. The point is, this is yet another way that consumers are picking up ideas on what to buy. “Anyone can be a merchandiser, anyone can be a reviewer,” said Cliff Conneighton, of Elastic Path Software, speaking at Web 2.0 Expo New York. “Control of the brand has shifted to the crowd.”

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