Gobblepalooza: Mobile Thursday Lives Up to the Hype

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The shopping terms used this holiday weekend were endless. Millions were spent in advertising, both traditional and new media. Some catchy, some kitschy, but all were meant to catch the consumer’s attention and get them to buy, either online or in store. That being said, compared with prior years, the results are in and a staggering success mobile proved to be.

As I pointed out in my blog last week, shoppers in stores across the country, and online, were expected to embrace the mobile device last Thanksgiving weekend. The stats are clear that the experts were right:

• US shoppers spent a record $52 Billion over the 4-day weekend.
Approximately 17% of all shoppers used their mobile devices to shop and compare deals. Up from 5.6% in 2010.
• PayPal Mobile announced a 511% increase in global mobile payment volume compared to Thanksgiving weekend 2010.
• eBay said that US shopper payments via eBay Mobile more than doubled this Thanksgiving over last year.
• GSI Commerce saw a 345% increase in US mobile sales this Thanksgiving compared to 2010.
• iPhone continues to lead all mobile device traffic at 6.58 %, followed by Android at 5.20% and iPad at 4.71%.

Consumers in the US with a mobile device, that’s 96% of us (who is that other 4%?), embraced mobile marketing this holiday weekend – due in part to retailers’ investments in delivering a better mobile experience for their Generation-M consumers. Great commitments were made in building opt-in mobile databases, and there are many more effective technologies and strategies being utilized this season to deliver the deals we have come to expect on Black Friday, Cyber Monday and now Mobile Thursday.

The mobile marketing technologies and capabilities include more widespread utilization of text messaging and more prevalent use of QR codes, location-based services, interactive mobile applications, mobile web, mobile coupons and augmented reality. And after all that, there is still room for substantial growth, given just 25% of the companies in the top 200 retailers have a mobile optimized website or a clear long-term mobile roadmap. Big box stores that have invested in their mobile presence across their entire customer spectrum saw dramatic increases in their mobile channel response rates and associated revenue– one even reported double digit growth.

About the only thing people love more than their smartphone is a deal. With a record 226 million shoppers visiting stores and websites over the Thanksgiving weekend, exceeding the 212 million last year, the retail holiday season is off to a solid start. So, as the leftovers are finished off, and shoppers start wrapping their gifts, retailers will be reviewing store sales and seeing that a mobile marketing strategy helped make this a very happy Thanksgivinganza.

Republished with author's permission from original post.

Mike Romano
Mike Romano is the Vice President of Mobile Sales and Service for SoundBite Communications. He is responsible for identifying, developing and managing strategic partnerships for the mobile services business unit. Mike accelerates revenue and profitability by developing C-level relationships, building high-achieving sales teams and growing strategic partnership channels.

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