Mobile’s growing role in holiday shopping | MarTech

Consumers aren’t just using their phones to research products they see on TV, they’re using them to make purchases.

Seventy-seven percent of smart TV owners said they frequently make mobile purchases based on TV ads they see, according to a recent study by Samsung Ads.

This behavior will carry through the rest of the holiday season as Salesforce forecasts a high volume of mobile shopping. Eighty-three percent of web traffic and 76% of online purchases will be driven by mobile from December 23 to 25, Salesforce predicts.

Cross-screen mobile advertising. What shows up in a TV ad has the potential to influence shoppers on their mobile devices. This is the key component in “shoppable” interactive TV ads.

According to the study, 30% of consumers report using a QR code in a TV ad to learn about a product. And 29% will use that code to make a purchase. Also, 23% engage with ad-based games or quizzes promoted by the brand.

That means the majority of those who reported frequently making mobile purchases are doing so without prompts to scan a QR code or play a game. Gen Z consumers are 52% more likely to value QR codes and links for more information, according to the Samsung Ads study.

Mobile Wallets. Nearly a quarter (24%) of all global holiday season orders will be made with mobile wallet payment options such as Google Pay, Apple Pay and PayPal, according to Salesforce.

Mobile wallet purchases were up 16% year-over-year for the week following Cyber Monday.

Why we care. Shoppable means different things in the digital ad business, depending on the customer. Some smart TV ads let users learn more about a product or purchase it with their TV remote. For ecommerce, shoppable can mean clicking on an ad, or an influencer-posted video, and being taken directly to a product you can add to your cart.

What this holiday season is proving out is the high use of mobile devices to make purchases. A QR code in a TV ad can make the ad shoppable — certainly the case for the 30% of consumers who scan it. For many mobile users, just seeing the brand or product name in a compelling ad gets them searching on their phones anyway.

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