Page 23 - Aruba Today

TECHNOLOGY A23
Friday 27 November 2015

Smartphones overtake desktops for holiday shopping

MAE ANDERSON trade group for storeown- Wal-Mart, the world’s larg- Day,” said Tamara Gaff- And much of mobile traf-
ers, expects industry-wide est retailer, expects that ney, director of Adobe fic doesn’t translate into
AP Technology Writer sales to be up 3.7 percent 75 percent of U.S. traffic Digital Index. “In between sales.
in November and Decem- to its website will come cooking, watching foot- But for shoppers, the con-
NEW YORK (AP) — If the ber, less than the 4.1 per- from mobile devices this ball and in general hang- venience factor is hard to
cent of last year’s holiday holiday shopping season. ing around family and beat, says Forrester Re-
beginning of the holiday season. That’s up from 50 percent friends, there’s down time search analyst Sucharita
But online spending figures two years ago. Likewise, to glance at the iPad and Mulpuru.
season is any indication, it are stronger. Forrester pre- eBay says it expects mo- smartphone and do some “While retailers may la-
dicts online sales will rise bile sales during the holi- shopping.” ment their low conversion
could be a merry mobile 11 percent to $95 billion. days will be “significantly” Take Danyell Taylor, 34, rates and slow download
And mobile sales are be- higher than the 41 per- a writer in Washington, speeds on mobile de-
Christmas for shoppers.

For the first time, there’s ex-

pected to be more peo-

ple visiting retailers’ web

sites through their smart-

phones than on desktop

computers or tablets dur-

ing the first weekend of

the holiday shopping sea-

son that begins on Thanks-

giving Day.

Mobile traffic during the

five-day start to what is

typically the busiest shop-

ping period of the year is

expected to reach 56.9

percent of total traffic,

up from 48.5 percent last

year, according to IBM

Watson.

And even though every-

one who “window shops”

on their phones isn’t going

to buy, mobile sales are

jumping too. Mobile sales

are expected to account

for 36.1 percent of online

sales, up from 27 percent

last year, according to

IBM Watson Trend.

The bumps in traffic and

sales come as retailers

try to make the mobile

shopping experience

easier by improving their

mobile apps and add-

ing coupons and other

deals. Shoppers also have

gotten more comfort-

able browsing retailers’

web sites as smartphone

screen sizes have gotten

bigger, making it easier for

them to see photos of the In this Friday, Nov. 23, 2012, file photo, Tashalee Rodriguez, of Boston, uses a smartphone app while shopping at Macy’s in

items they want to buy. downtown Boston. Associated Press

Digital wallets and apps coming a bigger piece of cent mobile sales made D.C. who likes the “easy vices, shoppers still keep
that pie. Forrester expects up of total revenue in the access” of smartphone shopping on those devic-
that let shoppers store them to account for 35 third quarter. shopping. Taylor plans to es,” Mulpuru says, adding
percent of e-commerce Thanksgiving and the day start looking for holiday that shoppers “appear to
payment information are this year and 49 percent in after the holiday known as deals on Wednesday and have greater tolerance
five years. That compares Black Friday are expected continuing through the for imperfection, much
helping too. to 29 percent in 2014. to be particularly mobile- weekend, specifically for like in the early days of
Adobe, which measures friendly shopping dates Converse shoes and Kate desktop.” Jill Markiewicz,
“It’s very convenient,” said 80 percent of online sales because people can use Spade home accessories. 38, a personal shopper in
from the top 100 U.S. re- their phones to take ad- “I’m going to sit on my New York, says she shops
Seth Reineke, 25, an insur- tailers, predicts 40 to 45 vantage of limited-time couch with my phone frequently on her iPhone
percent of all retail traf- offers wherever they may and my laptop and buy 6s on Saks Fifth Ave and
ance worker from Iowa fic during November and be. Adobe predicts mo- from there,” she says. “I J.Crew’s mobile web sites.
December will come from bile will drive the majority don’t plan on going into “I’m typically on foot run-
City, Iowa, who plans to mobile devices, up from of shopping traffic, 51 per- the store at all.” ning around a lot ... don’t
37 percent last year. Mo- cent, for the first time on Mobile shopping still has get a whole lot of desk
peruse Amazon’s week- bile sales are expected to Thanksgiving Day. its problems, including se- time,” Markiewicz says.
total 20 to 25 percent of “There’s a lot of opportu- curity concerns, sluggish “You can go from email to
end deals from his phone. total online sales, up from nity to do ‘shopping under apps and hard-to-nav- checkout cart in a matter
16 percent last year. the table’ on Thanksgiving igate mobile web sites. of minutes.”q
“It allows me to keep

track of time-sensitive

sales without being tied to

a computer or having to

leave a holiday event or

get-together.”

Overall spending this sea-

son is expected to be

somewhat muted. The Na-

tional Retail Federation, a