The holiday shopping season is nearly in full swing and survey results from CashStar, a leading digital gifting and incentives company, show that online Americans are shopping from their mobile devices in mass numbers, sometimes from unexpected places.
The survey found that more than 38 million online adult Americans admit to having shopped online while on the toilet (shopping and plopping, as I like to think of it – Ed). But more significantly, It also found that convergence is happening in unexpected ways with almost 17 million shopping via a mobile device while standing in the retailer’s physical store.
The CashStar Mobile Online Shopping Survey also found some other surprising shopping trends, typically that more West Coasters were likely to use mobile while in a physical store. More than 9 million Americans admitted to secretly shopping while in a business meeting(pretending that they were checking email). 4 million admit shopping while driving and men are much more inclinded to shop on the toilet than women.
The survey, which was conducted online nationwide by Harris Interactive on behalf of CashStar from November 6-8, 2012 among 2,104 US online adults aged 18 and older, examined the strange or odd places US adults have used computers or mobile devices to shop online.
“Smartphones and tablets have enabled consumers to shop and gift on-the-go in more ways and places than ever before,” explains David Stone, co-founder and CEO of CashStar. “The retailers who have been paying attention and catering to where and how consumers want to shop by mobile-optimizing their e-commerce sites and offering mobile eGift Cards will reap the rewards this holiday season and have a jump on the competition going into 2013.Retailers on the CashStar platform whose eGift Card website is optimized for mobile have seen 3,700 percent more sales from mobile devices this year than retailers whose sites are not mobile-optimized. Why? Because the experience is so much better, faster, and easier for consumers.”
