Procrastinators rule holiday shopping, according to a new report on mobile search.
Mobile searches for store locations and gift ideas peak on Christmas Eve, not Black Friday, the so-called biggest holiday-shopping day of the year, the study revealed.
The results of the study, by mobile-advertising network xAd, surprised many on Madison Avenue since neither shipping nor e-commerce sites are an option at that late date.
“What we’re seeing is local; it’s very commerce-related; and electronics is huge, then apparel,” said Monica Ho, vice president of marketing at xAd, who looked at retail-related search terms in November and December.
“This gives stores a tremendous opportunity and it’s new; we haven’t seen this trend before,” said Ho.
At Bloomingdale’s mobile site, the store is promoting a “Procrastinators Have All the Fun” special, offering 15 percent off almost everything in stores and online through Christmas Eve.
On Friday, Macy’s mobile site was offering Web-buster deals and an extra-25-percent-off clearance. The stores are also offering extended hours.
Indeed, measurement firm eMarketer revealed Friday that marketers doubled their mobile spending in 2013 to $9.6 billion, up from $4.4 billion the year prior. According to the firm, marketers now spend almost a quarter of their entire digital budgets on mobile.
Of course, it may not be procrastination leading US shoppers to wait for the last minute — they may be hoping for a better deal.
“People are looking for last-minute deals, and that’s been encouraged by the brick-and-mortar stores,” Vik Kathuria, global head of digital investment at Mediacom, told The Post. “Retailers have been conditioning people to last-second offers.”
The same last-minute mobile-search trend was true for Valentine’s Day, Mother’s Day and Halloween. Desktop search showed Christmas activity on Black Friday.