Well, this is interesting. A recent survey found that mobile devices make young adults 2x more likely to buy something at a physical retail store — but only young adults. Why?
In May Gallup asked 1,505 U.S. adults if mobile devices such as smartphones had boosted their in-person retail store shopping. Most adults over age 30 were ambivalent, with about 20% saying they shopped more as a result of iPhones and tablets, a similar 20% saying less, and the remainder saying no change at all.
But young adults were different. 29% of adults 18-29 years old said mobile had increased their in-store shopping, while only 15% said mobile had decreased it. That’s nearly a 2-to-1 edge for mobile pushing youth to the mall, a whopping finding. What gives? Why would mobile communications push young people to stores to buy, while most other adults ignore them?
Here are four possibilities:
1. Younger adults might have less access to credit cards, so mobile necessarily pushes them to physical stores. Gallup floated this idea in explaining its study, but it’s unlikely — since 60% of college seniors now have a credit card vs. the 70% U.S. adult average, the slight difference would not account for the 2x response in youth to mobile influence.
2. Younger adults spend more time at the mall, so mobile is more likely to increase their shopping while there. Hm. Possible. A recent tracking study of malls around the United States found that 34% of visitors were adults age 18-24, while that same demo makes up only 15% of the U.S. population. If young people are already there, mobile would be likely to get them to spend in stores.
3. The primary use of mobile is to enable social behavior, and young adults are more likely to think of shopping as a social experience. Teens, for instance, go shopping 75% of the time with friends, and 64% of adults age 18-24 go to the mall with someone else vs. being alone (vs. 55% among all adults), according to a 2009 Arbitron study. This confluence of mobile-social-shopping behavior among youth and young adults would make mobile communications more likely to drive retail purchases.
4. Youth are more open to mobile or social communications related to commerce. This conjecture is hard to prove, but another recent Gallup study did find that young adults were more open to social media influencing their purchase decisions. 43% of Millennials said social networks spurred their commerce, vs. only 34% of Gen Xers, 26% of Baby Boomers, and 16% of the oldest adult demo that Gallup kindly calls Traditionalists. Social media is not exactly mobile, but it’s close enough we can surmise youth are also more open to mobile messaging that drives shopping.
We suggest the correct answers are 2, 3 and 4 above. Youth go to the mall. Mobile is social. And social influences young adult shopping. This is important news for marketers who are struggling to reach the future generation of shoppers, since humans tend to take their media habits with them as they age.
If you’re wondering why Amazon went to the trouble of launching its own smartphone, or Facebook is so interested in pushing ads into the main mobile Newsfeed, Gallup tells you why.