During a recent EpiServer webinar, Forrester Research’s vice president, principal analyst, Sucharita Mulpuru, gave her insight on the 2012 holiday shopping season and concluded that showrooming is here to stay.
Citing a recent Forrester survey, Mulpuru said half of the respondents have done some sort of price comparison shopping on a mobile device in 2012. That number, Mulpuru said, “is growing and it’s not insignificant.”
“This is basically going to become the industry standard,” Mulpuru said.
Mulpuru said there was also no question that the 2012 holiday shopping season was one for the record books. According to Mulpuru, the holiday sales in November and December alone equated for 30% of the total online sales in 2012.
Mobile traffic was a major focus for shoppers overall in 2012, Mulpuru said, which included tablet and smartphone use. During the webinar, Mulpuru said, in 2011 5.6% of all sales in 2011 came from tablets and 4.4% came from mobile. Those numbers nearly doubled in 2012 with 9.2% of sales coming from tablets and 9.8% coming mobile.
Even though mobile use is increasing, Mulpuru said for the holiday season, especially over the 2012 Thanksgiving weekend, it actually declined. According to Mulpuru, 28% of holiday sales came from mobile devices in 2011, while only 25% in 2012.