Why shoppers are using their mobiles in your store — and why you should care
When shoppers go on social media while browsing your store, it doesn’t have to mean you’ve lost their attention — understanding customers’ actions on mobile means new real-time marketing opportunities to explore.
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Mobile presents a huge opportunity for fashion brands, not only to influence and inspire shoppers, but also to sell to them. Based on a sample of certain European fashion retailers, our data shows that 6 in 10 of all the fashion purchases visible to Facebook are made on mobile, and 70% of online fashion shopping journeys that end in a purchase have at least one mobile touchpoint at some point.1
From prior Facebook IQ research, we’ve seen that mobile can often result in a shorter purchase journey, compared to desktop. However, when we look specifically at fashion purchase journeys where the first touchpoint is a mobile app, we see that these particular journeys can last longer, have more browsing sessions and expose customers to more products along their journeys.1
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In the past, some marketers working in ecommerce were looking to shorten the customer journey, but fashion marketers now understand that long-term value can be more important than a quick conversion, particularly when they're dealing with customers using their app.
David Tucito
Facebook Solutions Engineering
This is supported by our data: Based on a sampling of certain European fashion retailers, we saw that when a fashion purchase journey starts on mobile (particularly on a mobile app) it can have up to a 1.45X higher chance converting than those that start on desktop.1
Comparing fashion purchase journeys that start on a mobile app versus on desktop
But what role, if any, does mobile play while shoppers are in stores? And what are the implications for fashion marketers? Facebook IQ previously explored fashion conversations on Facebook and Instagram and examined how the fashion path-to-purchase has changed. Now, we have surveyed 4,598 people across the UK, Germany, France, Italy, Spain and the US, who said they were recently in a retail store, based on location history, and respondents were also asked when they last visited a retail store.
From this research, we can see that many people use apps and services while they're in stores and more than half indicated they would be open to receiving coupons or offers on their phones while out shopping. If a shopper is holding her mobile phone in one hand while browsing clothing racks with the other, there is a clear opportunity for fashion marketers to influence a potential customer in that key purchase moment.
People multitask and go online while in stores
We first asked people which mobile phone apps and services they used on their phones during their last retail store visit. Number one was WhatsApp, with 44% of people who use WhatsApp saying they used it the last time they were in a store. WhatsApp usage is particularly high in Germany, Spain and Italy, with 2X as many WhatsApp users in those three European countries saying they opened WhatsApp last time they were in store, when compared to people in the US, Britain and France.
Many people (43%) said they were using WhatsApp to communicate about a topic not related to shopping, but there are a number who were communicating specifically about the shopping task at hand. For example, 18% shared photos or videos taken in stores and 14% asked for recommendations.2
Among people who use Messenger, 20% say they used Messenger when they were last in a store; 18% of people who use Instagram say they used Instagram when they were last in a store; and 32% of people who use Facebook say they opened Facebook when they were last in a store. Among those surveyed, We found Millennials were significantly more likely to say they use Facebook in stores than older age groups, 1.74X more likely than those ages 55 and older and 1.33x more likely than those ages 35–54.2 When it comes to using Facebook in store, over a third of Millennials we surveyed said they were using it because they were looking for something more meaningful and interesting to do, describing the in-store experience as boring.
Top 5 Reasons Why People Use Facebook, WhatsApp or Messenger in store3
Shoppers may be browsing their phones, but they’re not checked out
More than half of the people we surveyed said they would like to receive personalized offers or coupons on their mobile phones while they shop, with those between the ages of 18-54 years 1.38X more likely to be receptive to these types of offers, than those ages 55 and older. People in the US were most likely to indicate they would respond positively to the thought of receiving in-store offers on their mobiles. Those in Germany were least likely.2
Openness to in-store ads4
When we asked specifically about ads on Facebook, we saw that the majority of people felt in-store ads could be beneficial: 63% of people agreed that if they saw an ad on Facebook about a product that could be purchased in the store they were shopping in, they would think it was useful, and 61% agreed it would be relevant.
What it means for marketers
Optimize your website for mobile.
Given that 6 in 10 of the fashion purchases Facebook measures are made on mobile, is your website designed to make the shopping experience on mobile as quick and easy as possible? Are your content and ads designed for mobile viewing? Read more about how to optimize video creative on mobile and download our white paper: Why Creativity Matters More in the Age of Mobile.
Design your store to appeal to shoppers who are on their phones.
Our research shows people are using their mobile devices in your store, so how can your turn that to your advantage? Designing interesting displays for them to photograph or video and share on social, for example, is one way to merge in-store and online experiences.
Explore more Facebook fashion insights.
Check out Insights to Go - our tool that allows you to quickly and easily filter, find and download stats — featuring more than fifty fashion insights from around the world.