By Jamie Barrie I t should be no surprise to anyone that owns a smart phone that shopping is becoming more mobile than ever this holiday season, especially for Gen Z shoppers looking to spend their or their parent’s hard-earned dollars as shoppers are expected to spend an average of $1,250 on gifts, travel and entertainment this holiday season. A new survey from PwC shows that 84 percent of shoppers young and old alike, are expected to buy items online this holiday season, according to an annual survey of roughly 2,070 consumers by PwC. That’s about the same as in 2017. With 16 percent of consumers planning to shop online for the holiday season saying that they plan to do so on their smart- phones, this is up from 12 percent a year ago. When it comes to Gen Z shoppers, which are those shoppers between the ages of 17 and 22, 50 percent plan to complete all of their shopping online during the holidays using only their smartphone browsing social media accounts on their cell phones more than their computers in search of the perfect gifts to give and to get this holiday season. The other half was divided among shopping on tablets, desktop or laptop computers and smart-home technology. Thirty-nine percent of those Gen Z customers said they will click through “buy” buttons to make purchases, while 25 percent said they prefer shoppable photos, like those on Instagram. While desktop computers have historically been the primary method of browsing the web, this year smartphones are favored by many people, as retailers are starting to invest more in their mobile apps or are partnering with social media channels. Mobile shopping continues to break new records and spending via smartphones is only expected to grow bigger, accord- ing to industry analysts, as Gen Z gains spending power. That demographic is expected to comprise 32 percent of the global population of 7.7 billion by next year, ahead of millennials at 31.5 percent. Instagram and Snapchat have been making it easier for users to shop from their site while making it easier for brands to get engaged with users making it easy for you to shop anywhere and for just about anything you can think of this holiday season.
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SPOTLIGHT ON BUSINESS MAGAZINE • OCTOBER 2018
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