Shopping after closing time: iPad sapiens shops after work and on Sunday

Posted by heiko.lammers in Market Insights , December 20th, 2012

zanox Mobile Performance Barometer: The consumer behaviour of iPad-users differs considerably from traditional online shopping

They surf longer, watch more TV shows online and play more promotional games – iPad-owners behave differently to the average internet-user. This is demonstrated, among others, by a study conducted by the Interactive Advertising Bureau Europe (IAB Europe). But these are not the only differences. In the current “Mobile Performance Barometer 2012”, the performance advertising network, zanox, shows that users of the Apple tablet also have different online shopping-habits. Accounting for over 53% of revenues generated, the iPad is the most important source of sales in European mobile commerce (Status: September 2012). More than sufficient grounds for zanox to take a closer look at the shopping habits of iPad users.

The Revenue King: iPad
In order to produce a detailed picture of the shopping behaviour of iPad-users, zanox conducted an analysis of de facto transactions completed on over 1,000 of its advertiser programmes. During the process, it was noted that over half (53 percent) of all transactions in European m-commerce were completed on iPads. Revenues generated by iPhones make up 19 percent of the total volume, while the revenue-share generated by Android devices is 25 percent.

Shopping after work and on Sundays
“iPad-users are not only very well-funded: their buying habits also differ considerably from those of PC and smartphone-users,” explains Stefanie Lüdecke, Chief Sales Officer of zanox. Ordering the newest trends or downloading the latest tunes after work – these are typical everyday scenes for users in the iPad-community. Almost a third of all daily transactions (27.13 percent) are made between 6 pm and 9 pm. In addition, there is increased activity among iPad-users on Sundays. The number of transactions completed on Sunday is around 25 percent higher than the weekly average per day.

The user-scenarios for all other mobile devices, as well as for e-commerce via laptops and PCs look different. These user-groups usually shop between Monday and Thursday, with the number of transactions dipping slightly on Fridays and over the weekend. Beyond this, it is not possible to clearly deduce a preferred time-of-day for online shopping: Viewed over the course of the day, transactions remain at a similar level over all devices during the period from 6 am hours to 10 pm.

Retailers and fashion shops alone generated 63 percent of the m-commerce revenues made in Germany via the iPad in the first three quarters of 2012. If one compares the growth figures for the different sectors for the period between January and September 2012 with those for the previous year, it can be seen that the “Retail & Shopping” (222 percent), “Telecommunications and Services” (223 percent) and “Travel” (213 percent) sectors, in particular, have experienced substantial increases in transactions made using iPads.

iPad-commerce is not the same as m-commerce
“The development of a one-fits-all m-commerce-strategy for all platforms will not be an adequate response to the specifics of different mobile user-groups. The iPad is an m-commerce channel with laws of its own. Companies and the operators of online shops must bear this in mind if they wish to fully exploit the revenue-potential of this channel,” adds Lüdecke. “Sales campaigns for the iPad must be adapted to suit the specific consumer habits of its users.”

A good example for consideration of the habits of iPad users comes in the form of advanced STORE. An exclusive VIP publisher in the zanox network, they attuned themselves to the needs of this special target group some time ago. “The iPad is the most important driver in the m-commerce market and there are clear differences in shopping habits compared with other channels. For this reason, we have a long-established practice of optimising all of our ad media specifically for the iPad,” explains Marc Majewski, Founder and CEO of advanced STORE. “We started adapting our ad media for the new user-group back when the iPad 1 was launched. This entails measures such as the deliberate avoidance of Flash or the targeted use of fall-back ad media for the iPad.”

The “zanox Mobile Performance Barometer 2012” is the second analysis carried out by zanox on the basis of e-commerce transactions in the double-figure millions range from over 1,000 advertiser programmes in the European core markets (Germany, Italy, France, Spain, Benelux, Scandinavia and Poland). The transactions were reviewed with regard to their relevance for m-commerce.