The Social/Mobile Consumer

It is without a doubt that today smartphones are treated as an extension of ourselves. You may even say that some rely on their phones a little too much. Combined, the fear of missing out and the constant need to always be connected (especially for millennials) are what create the driving force behind the popularity of social media and mobile applications. With smartphone owners using their phone 150 times daily and countless hours monthly, the combination of social and mobile has become the ultimate marketing tool and shopping assistant.

Social

In this year alone social advertising is predicted to reach $24.2 billion. Why so much? Monthly active users across social media platforms are plentiful: Facebook has almost 1.2 billion, Instagram sees 400 million and Twitter has 305 million active accounts. It is undeniable that there is a marketplace for brands, retailers and marketing of all kinds to exist across social platforms. In 2014, Facebook was the recipient of 75% of all social spending. Companies have been responding to the increasing demand for social media and are adjusting their marketing strategies. Under Armour has re-allocated their budget to a level 50–50 split of television and digital marketing from a 70–30. Canadian Tire has also tapped into the power of social marketing by using seven second Facebook ads the average sell-through amount increased by 50 percent.

Mobile

In 2015, app sessions grew 58% and 40% of that was repeat users. Millennials are spending 41% of their mobile time on media and in the US, the younger subset of the cohort (ages 18–24) are spending 91 hours monthly using applications. However, even with so much time spent on applications, users are still turning to browsers to search for items they intend to purchase. The question is how do businesses get more people downloading and browsing their app with intent to make a purchase? The answer: personalization. Apps with some form of personalization saw a 332% year over year growth rate from 2014–2015.

The growing trend of digital wallets could also be the answer on how to increase the number of purchases over mobile. Should mobile wallets integrate with browsers and provide easy to use, one-click services to make buying on mobile easier, consumers may be more likely to buy. It is predicted that by the year 2020, $632 billion will be spent on e-commerce, and 45% ($284.4 billion) will be from mobile.

Mobile and social will continue to be two areas that brands and enterprises will turn to for marketing purposes. To learn more about how millennials are affecting the mobile and social trend check out Personalization 2.0. We’re living in a world where retail and personalization are evolving, and enterprises need to be able to adapt if they want to stay in the game.