Mobile analytics company Mobidia Technology Inc. says that it analysis of mobile shopping data revealed a 48% jump in mobile shopping applications on Thanksgiving and 86% on Black Friday.
The analysis examined the usage of more than 25 retail, Internet, deal and shopping aid apps throughout 2013, compared to usage on Thanksgiving Day and Black Friday. Mobidia draws its data from millions of global smartphone users who have downloaded its My Data Manager application and opt-in to provide anonymous data.
According to Mobidia, key findings were:
- The number of minutes that users spent in shopping applications on those two days, compared to averages throughout the year, climbed considerably. Use of mobile shopping apps on Thanksgiving was up 48%, and on Black Friday it was up 86% from average usage the rest of the year.
- Mobile shopping applications still accounted for only a small fraction of mobile usage, despite the surge. Within Mobidia’s sample users, mobile shopping minutes consisted of only 4.23% of the minutes spent in Facebook, on average, during 2013. On Black Friday, that increased to 7.87%.
Mobidia’s data also showed strong usage growth between Black Friday 2012 and this year. The company noted that established mobile shopping apps such as eBay and Amazon has single-digit year-over-year growth, with eBay use up 9% and Amazon up 6% among Mobidia’s users.
Newer apps showed much larger growth. Groupon, for instance, had 70% year-over-year growth and Dealnews registered 32%.
“As expected, U.S. smartphone users in our sample of millions of users increased their usage of mobile shopping apps during the first big week-end of holiday shopping,” said Chris Hill, vice president of marketing at Mobidia. “We saw increases across the board – increases in users of mobile shopping apps, increases in the number of minutes they used these apps, and increases in the number of unique views of these apps. Our sample was comprehensive of all genres of mobile shopping including retail, internet, deals, and shopping aids. It looks like consumers are making smartphones a critical component to their shopping experiences.”
