MOBILE EVE: HOW RETAIL STORES CAN MAKE THE MOST OF LAST MINUTE HOLIDAY SHOPPING A PUBLICATION OF

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1 MOBILE EVE: HOW RETAIL STORES CAN MAKE THE MOST OF LAST MINUTE HOLIDAY SHOPPING

2 It s safe to say smartphones have made our lives much easier. They are our personal companions and digital multi-taskers, helping us get the info we need to take action quicker than we could with a land line, map, or by asking a stranger for directions. Mobile devices have also amplified and diversified our retail behaviors allowing consumers to research, locate and sometimes even purchase everything from clothing to dog food immediately and on the go. But this ease of access to everything we could ever hope to buy has unleashed the procrastinator in all of us. Gone are the days of planning ahead. Our smartphones can now point us toward the nearest department store or big box retailer, show us their holiday hours of operation, and even navigate us to their massive parking lot that will surely be jam packed with other like-minded, last minute in-store holiday shoppers. We call this this activity Mobile Eve. Mobile Eve, noun: the phenomenon experienced during the days leading up to Christmas, when retail consumers turn to their mobile devices, en masse, to find last minute gifts at their nearest brick and mortar location. While terms like Black Friday, Midnight Madness and Cyber Monday have become just as much a part of our holiday vernacular as Santa Clause himself, our love for and reliance on mobile has given rise to this additional holiday window of opportunity that retailers simply can t ignore any longer. 2

3 Data from xad s mobile-location platform reveals that retail related search activity on Mobile Eve is 24% greater than that of Black Friday. While Black Friday activity on mobile devices is still significant and well worth retailer attention, a greater emphasis on last minute shopping activity affords retailers one final chance to achieve intended share of voice and overall holiday sales goals. The chart below demonstrates an index of mobile search activity that occurred on the xad platform between November 10, 2012 and December 1, 2012 based on an aggregate of the following retail-related search categories; Big Box Retailers, Apparel, Electronics, Toys, Luxury, and Seasonal. This index was calculated against the average of all mobile search activity within these categories during the holiday season (11/1/12 12/1/12) BLACK FRIDAY MOBILE RETAIL SEARCH ACTIVITY 2% 11/10 12/1/12 Indexed Data CHRISTMAS EVE /10/ /12/ /4/ /16/ /18/ /20/ /22/ /24/ /26/ /28/ /0/ /02/ /04/ /06/ / /10/ /12/ /14/ /16/ /18/ /20/ /22/ /24/ /26/ /28/ /0/2012 Notice that last minute activity ramps up just three days before Christmas, when we see a spike in line with activity from Black Friday. Then, on Christmas Eve, last minute needs reach a fever pitch when consumers search for the nearest retail location to find and purchase those final gifts. At this point in their holiday procrastination, brick and mortar location are not just a preference, but a necessity. Finding the perfect gift and having it shipped at the height of holiday madness, overnight or even same day, is just not available with most online retailers.

4 Contrary to mobile data, desktop retail trends reveal consumer concentration on ecommerce during Black Friday To put this mobile-driven activity in perspective, we looked to Google Trends for an index of online or desktop-centric search within the Shopping category. During this same stretch of time, there is a clear spike in activity on Black Friday, when both online and offline retailers launch their biggest and best sales of the year. For consumers looking to purchase online, Black Friday also provides ample time for research and decisionmaking, as well as, shipping and gift-wrapping. Compared with mobile, however, last minute, brick and mortar-focused activity on desktop is far less significant. GOOGLE TRENDS SHOPPING RELATED QUERIES 11/10 12/1/12 / Interest Over Time* Index 180% 160% BLACK FRIDAY 140% 2% 120% 100% 80% 60% 40% CHRISTMAS EVE 20% 0% 11/10/ /12/ /4/ /16/ /18/ /20/ /22/ /24/ /26/ /28/ /0/ /02/ /04/ /06/ / /10/ /12/ /14/ /16/ /18/ /20/ /22/ /24/ /26/ /28/ /0/2012 While the last minute trends experienced during Mobile Eve are naturally more exaggerated due to the sheer volume of dollars being spent during the holiday season, other major retail holidays demonstrate similar procrastination activity eased by the use of mobile search via smartphones. Earlier this year xad released reports documenting mobile search activity found on our platform during Mother s Day and Halloween, both of which illustrated a spike in mobile-related interest in the days leading up to the actual holiday or popular celebration of that holiday (ie. Halloween weekend observation). * Google Interest Over Time index represents search interest relative to the highest point on the chart and does not convey absolute search volume. Click here to learn more about how Google normalizes and scales its trend data. 4

5 Mobile Eve Checklist: Building Mobile-Location Campaigns that Drive Brick & Mortar Holiday Business With all this increased user attention on brick and mortar locations during Mobile Eve, a huge opportunity is created for the retail industry to effectively align both targeting strategies and mobile ad creative with the way in which mobile users interact with physical storefronts. The below checklist will help you take full advantage of this important phenomenon. DO THE RESEARCH We are long past the years of unavailable insights and blind testing. There are a variety of insightful and well respected reports available to the industry, and even more available to us as an advertising platform. These will allow you to better understand and identify with your consumer audiences and their specific behaviors found during the holiday season. Click here for a collection of some of our favorite holiday related mobile research. LOCK IN LOCATION Because Mobile Eve demonstrates user preference in finding and visiting physical storefronts, targeting should be focused around the vicinity of each store location. Research from our 201 Mobile Path to Purchase Retail report found that 50% of mobile consumers are looking for a storefront within five miles of their current location and when it comes to Mobile Eve, the closer the better. Therefore, focusing ad placement on the areas immediately surrounding each location, or competitor locations, taking into consideration each location s store hours, and user search activity in the area, will help refine the targeting and help drive increased consumer visitation during Mobile Eve. CREATIVE COUPONING It s hard to resist a sale, and during the holiday season, consumers are always on the lookout for the best deals. In fact, 28% of mobile users said they are more likely to click on an ad that contains a coupon or promotion of some kind (201 Mobile Path to Purchase: Retail). Make sure all that hard work in targeting isn t lost on ad creative that falls flat. Leverage dynamic, locally relevant, mobile coupon creative that promotes the best sales and steals each store location has to offer. This type of ad creative is great for last minute clearance messaging and door busters. MEASURE AND BE MERRY Recent advancements in mobile location technology allow retail advertisers to track and analyze your last-minute optimized campaign from click to foot traffic. Store Visitation Lift studies are a great way to gather in-depth mobile consumer activity based on the physical locations visited during the campaign period, and the best way to prove campaign ROI. Why should Santa get all the glory? Check these elements off your planning list to make Mobile Eve work for you. Tap into this inherent mobile user activity and capture the attention of consumers while you still can. 5

6 MOBILE EVE 201 UPDATE Shoppers have increasingly capitalized on the ease and convenience of their smartphones over this holiday season, almost doubling overall mobile retail related search activity, compared with This 201 update to xad s previously released Mobile Eve report demonstrates that the phenomenon not only exists, but is becoming the new norm for retail shoppers. Below are the key findings: 201 MOBILE HIGHLIGHTS Mobile Retail Related Search on Mobile Eve has increased 5% YOY 1 Overall Retail Related Mobile Search During the Holiday Season Increased 86% YOY 2 Thanksgiving Day Mobile Search Activity Topped Black Friday Search Activity by 20% While Black Friday Retail Related Mobile Search has increased 7%, activity is still below that of Thanksgiving Day and Mobile Eve 4 RETAIL 2% RELATED MOBILE SEARCH DATA 2012 vs 201* BLACK FRIDAY 2012 THANKSGIVING DAY 201 MOBILE EVE 11/10/ /12/ /4/ /16/ /18/ /20/ /22/ /24/ /26/ /28/ /0/ /02/ /04/ /06/ / /10/ /12/ /14/ /16/ /18/ /20/ /22/ /24/ /25/2012 *2012 and 201 indexed by Combined Year Seasonal AVG Though Mobile Eve is still the most active mobile search time period during the holiday season, increasing 5% over last year, 201 has brought to light another interesting mobile consumer search trend that we have not seen previously. As you can see from the graph above, mobile retail related search activity surrounding Black Friday reached its peak on Thanksgiving Day in 201, compared with last year when it spiked on Black Friday (11/2/12). A major reason for this shift in consumer behavior can be attributed to the widespread retailer advertising that urged consumers to visit the stores on Thanksgiving evening to take advantage of time sensitive door buster promotions. Most importantly this new shift in activity is brick and mortar based, like that of Mobile Eve, bringing new complexity to consumer shopping preferences over Black Weekend. No doubt as our mobile culture continues to evolve, next year will bring new revelations. But it s clear both Mobile Eve and Thanksgiving Day mobile activity have one important trait in common actual physical store traffic. So you see, mobile devices are not replacing real storefront activity, but enabling it. And therefore, as recommended in our initial Mobile Eve report, brands and businesses can significantly benefit from mobilelocation advertising strategies that seek to drive sales at storefronts nationwide. 1 According to data on the xad platform comparing retail related mobile search activity on 12/24/12 to 12/24/1 2 According to data on the xad Platform comparing retail related mobile search activity from 9/1/12-12/25/12 to 9/1/1-12/25/1 Accoring to data on the xad platform comparing retail related mobile search activity on 11/2/12 to 11/29/1 4 According to data on the xad platform comparing retail related mobile search activity from 11/1/12-12/25/12 to 11/1/1-12/25/1 6