During the period of November 1 through December 31, 2018, Adobe reports holiday spending on mobile increased 55.2% from 2017, reaching $38.8 billion. The 2018 holiday shopping season proved that mobile is no longer a tactic but a necessary, strategic part of the plan for businesses that want to thrive. This holiday season mobile shoppers started purchasing earlier than ever before and continued transacting throughout December, showing the power of the mobile consumer in retail.

To provide insights on how to attract and engage these users year-round, we analyzed millions of transactions from the Button Marketplace to discover when, where, and what the mobile consumer is buying. Download the report for innovative tips on reaching these consumers and growing your business in 2019 and beyond.

In the report, we chatted with mobile innovators including SeatGeek who noted the shift in consumer behavior they saw during the holiday season.

"Many of the secular trends SeatGeek has been seeing over the past few years continued this holiday season. We sell tickets to live events, which helped us capitalize on the shift towards gifting experiences over physical gifts. On demand is a buzzword these days, and it definitely applies to our business: we're seeing an increasingly large share of purchases happen on the day of the event. And we continue to see a shift towards mobile, which of course is very interrelated with those last minute purchases."

— Shoji Ueki, Senior Director of Growth Marketing, SeatGeek

Check out the report for a deep dive into the mobile consumer's buyer journey.

The Mobile Consumer Chooses Apps

There are explicit distinctions in shopper behavior when comparing mobile buyer behavior in-app and on mobile web. Apps were the clear winner in the 2018 holiday shopping period. In the Button Marketplace, shoppers complete more orders in apps compared to the mobile web year round, and the holiday period was no exception:

From revenue per tap to orders per purchaser, app shoppers outperformed mobile web users across the board. Not to mention, The Button Marketplace saw a spike in first-time brand shoppers, mostly attributed to new app downloaders— 7 out of 10 shoppers during Cyber Week were new users.

Across the industry and in the Button Marketplace, the mobile buyer was more active during the 2018 holiday season than ever before. If we understand what consumer shopping behavior looks like on mobile when purchase intent is highest, we can be smarter in our year-round strategy to attract and engage these users. It's never too soon to prepare for the next holiday season, which always comes faster than we think.

Interested in learning more about the growing mobile economy and how the mobile consumer behaves?