Last minute shoppers this holiday season will shift their activity from PCs to mobile devices, according to
an analysis of retail traffic data xAd. The mobile ad network found that mobile lookups and search activity spiked during Black Friday weekend but were even higher on Xmas Eve, which xAd is calling “mobile eve” (perhaps unfortunately).
The findings show that mobile-retail activity was 24 percent higher, using last year’s data, on Xmas Eve than on Black Friday weekend and so-called Cyber Monday, which this year emerged as the largest single day for e-commerce to date.
This all makes logical sense, as shoppers rush around from store to store trying to find last-minute gifts. What’s more striking, however, is the fact that PC search volumes go the opposite direction and virtually disappear at the last-minute.
The following are two charts created by xAd comparing retail search traffic in mobile and on the PC during the same Black Friday to Xmas time period. The categories examined included Big Box Retailers, Apparel, Electronics, Toys and Luxury.
First, PC driven retail and shopping-related traffic from Google Trends data:
Now the xAd data showing the near opposite pattern of the chart above:
The conclusions are obvious: marketers and retailers need to emphasize mobile as the holiday shopping season draws to a close. That’s where attention will be focused as well as consumer buying intent.
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