2012 Holiday Mobile Shopping Habits [Infographic]

It’s that time of year again, and if you haven’t officially started your holiday shopping, you’ve probably at least started thinking about it. 2012 has definitely been a huge year when it comes to the explosion of mobile shopping, but there is something else connected to that which is also impacting retailers this year in a bizarrely negative way. Even though holiday sales are expected to be a bit higher this year than last year (4%), retailers aren’t as excited as you might expect…and that is because of a phenomenon called showrooming.

Not only are we mobile shopping more than ever, we are becoming more savvy about it. Showrooming is what happens when a consumer goes into a store, checks out a product, holds it, tries it, asks a bunch of questions, and then walks out only to use his or her mobile device to order it. Of course, the reason for this is because most of the time a lower price can easily be found online.

According to this infographic called I Saw Mommy Googling Santa Claus by Retail Customer Experience, 56% of shoppers will do some showrooming this holiday season, and more than 25% of those will make their online purchase via their mobile device while standing right there in the store. I’m sure to some retailers, that must feel like a slap in the face. However, when it comes to holiday and mobile shopping, there is no loyalty – and most of the time it simply comes down to a price decision. For example, if a consumer can save twenty or thirty bucks on a camera and get free shipping by mobile shopping instead of retail shopping, he or she will most likely buy it online. It’s as simple as that.

This is a very different trend from even just a few years ago when a large percentage of people were still nervous about mobile shopping (and online shopping in general). That has all changed now, and we are morphing into mobile shopping badasses. There are some other great stats on this infographic too (see the sources at the bottom). So what will you be buying this year? Or more importantly, what do you hope Santa brings this year?