Saving money and spending more: A very mobile Christmas

Mobile will play its largest role ever in governing who people will shop with and what they will buy this year, writes Weve’s George Hopkinson.

As I write this on the eve of Black Friday 2015 it is clear that the Great British Christmas shopper has become value obsessed. It is perhaps no surprise considering how important value seeking has become in everyday life. Take the ongoing success stories of Aldi, gocompare.com, Airbnb and Uber. All these companies have found ways to offer great services at low prices.

The other thing, most share, is that digital technology is at the heart of how value is created.

So how is this value obsession changing our Christmas shopping habits?

In line with other services people are using digital technology to create as much value for themselves as possible. More so than ever, people are relying on their smartphones to find, compare and purchase the best deals on Christmas gifts.

Weve’s primary research shows a massive 89% of British smartphone owners use mobile for their Christmas shopping, with 57% using their device to compare prices too. In contrast, only 65% are still visiting stores for gift inspiration (down 22% year on year).

Further, when people are in store, almost three quarters (72%) are using their mobile to compare prices and save money. So it seems that Christmas shoppers are successfully using digital technology to find value in the retail market.

Considering this shift towards ‘smarter’ shopping it seems strange that, according to an ING report, British shoppers spent more money than anyone else in Europe on their festive gifts. Last Christmas the average British shopper claimed to spend £350 on presents alone.

So considering shoppers are spending less time in store (and then saving money when they are there) how are we still managing to rack up such big gift bills?
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Firstly, online and mobile commerce are more than plugging the gap being left in the stores. Secondly, whilst it is true we are saving money by shopping around online, digital technology is changing shopping habits in other significant ways.

Mobile commerce has liberated shoppers, enabling them to buy pretty much anything, anywhere and at any time they want. Whether in reaction to an outdoor poster they have walked past, a conversation they have just had or to fill the time during a train or bus journey.

In short, shoppers can be more spontaneous than ever before. This, paired with the fact that only half of today’s festive shoppers prefer to see an item before they buy it, means that people are being much more impulsive with their purchases.

This impulsive nature can lead to a lot of atypical present buying situations. Including buying gifts that you decide to keep for yourself, buying gifts that turn out to be a big mistake (but not ever actually end up sending them back) or simply getting carried away and buying more than you normally would for those special people in your life. All of this is adding up to our record breaking Christmas spending sprees and mobile is leading much of the behavioural change.

So, with a £14 billion Christmas gift market in Great Britain I wonder exactly how many purchases are the perfectly suited, well considered, heart-warming gifts that are sent to the man on the moon and how many are the product of some overly spontaneous mobile shopping.

Either way, Christmas is likely to represent a bigger opportunity than ever before for British retailers and mobile will play its largest role to date in governing who people will shop with and what they will buy.

George Hopkinson is research manager at Weve.

Sources: Weve Primary Christmas Research.