£3.5bn of Christmas retail sales will be purchased on or influenced by smartphones, according to business advisory firm Deloitte. The influence of smartphones far outweighs the value of direct sales made through them, with consumers using their device to research prices, store Christmas shopping lists, engage with friends and family using social media, but also increasingly to make payments for goods. Deloitte predicts that around £3.2bn of in-store Christmas sales will be influenced by smartphones
The firm also predicts that £330m of sales will be carried out through smartphones and that a further £500m in sales will be made through tablets. “The rapid adoption of tablets and the high number received as gifts this Christmas will drive a sharp increase in transactions through these devices. However, whilst transaction growth is slower for smartphones, their broader influence is far greater. Whilst we forecast 10% of in-store sales will be influenced by smartphones in December, by 2016 we predict this figure will be as high as 18% for the full year, equivalent to £43bn of sales.”, Colin Jeffrey, head of multichannel retail at Deloitte said.
Deloitte also forecasts another strong year for online retail with sales increasing this Christmas by 17%. Colin Jeffrey added, “As with recent years, the strongest growth will be found online, with purchases completed on mobile phones double or even triple that of last year. It is also going to be a click-and-collect Christmas with those retailers who have invested in this service in line to do well as these customers spend more and collections drive footfall in to stores. Retailers without flexible collection options and mobile services are failing to meet basic customer expectations and will suffer as a result.”
