So for this post we’ll look at some lovely Christmassy stats for 2011. It seems as though this Christmas may be a white Christmas, but it’s also a very mobile Christmas. Looking at stats from Christmas 2010 Adfonic measured real-time clicks over the Christmas period across its global mobile advertising marketplace.  The click volumes last year reached an overall peak for the month on Boxing Day, which saw a further 26% increase on EBay’s dubbed ‘Mobile Sunday’. Adfonic saw mobile clicks for the first half of the month peak on the 12^th of December 2010 with a 400% increase compared to the begging of the month. Most likely due to consumers browsing for bargains whilst in-store. The IMRG predicted that some 20% of the 6.4billion expected to be spent online last year would be via our handsets, and with the UK leading the way on smartphone users at 11.1million.  That’s a penetration of 22.6% of total UK mobile users.  So we can assume this Christmas is set to if not repeat last year, then become an even more mobile for Christmas. A Tesco survey last year, conducted with 4,000 consumers found that half of mobile shoppers use their handsets whilst watching TV, one in six whilst sat on the bus, and a quarter during their daily commute. One in three respondents commented that shopping with their mobile helped take the stress away from the Christmas shop, allowing them to fit it into their busy schedule.

Spending predictions for this Christmas:

Over half of British consumers are not planning to cut back on spending on gifts this year, spending on average £560 per head. Equating to £378 on gifts for loved ones, and £183 on food, drink and entertainment. The biggest spenders are aged 35-44 and living in the North West. HSBC’s Christmas Spending Survey 2011 stated that 20% of people are expecting to spend more this Christmas compared to last. Online spend is predicted to be 16% higher than last year, partly due to more products being available online compared to last year.

What it means for retailers: Get your web mobile

One of the most obvious ways to appeal to the mobile shopper, is to have your site optimised for mobile browsing, be this your site or an app.

Mobile comparison apps

If you don’t have a mobile site, you can always make sure that it’s as mobile friendly as possible i.e. limited use of flash and clear page layouts. However, another way of getting your products in front of your potential customers’ is to ensure your products show up on mobile comparison and voucher sites, sites such as Sccope or Vouchercloud.

Reserve and collect

It’s a very useful function, and we know it works when online. So make sure your customers can do this via mobile, it’s also pretty handy at getting customers in-store.

Barcode Scanners

This is a handy extra for retailers, a barcode scanner allows customers to scan products when out shopping and compare prices or find reviews. Amazon’s app has a different approach, it uses photo recognition instead of a scanner, a good tool for offline shopping as it allows shoppers to easily check prices and reviews. So we hope you have a very merry Christmas, as it’s not all doom and gloom out there, people are spending, just get your brand ready – by the way we’re Brandthing and we’re a brand consultancy, hint, hint, nudge, nudge. And here’s a little something that may make you smile…  

The first ever Christmas card – 1843

Commissioned by Henry Cole in 1843, and designed by John C Horsley. It cost a whopping 6 pennies, and that was a luxury pricetag. The advert to purchase the card in Athenaeum Newspaper stated:

'Just published. A Christmas Congratulation Card: or picture emblematical of Old English Festivity to Perpetuate kind recollections between Dear Friends.'

Simply spiffing, we’re sure you will agree.     Tweet us @brandthing, ho ho ho.       Sources: Comscore   EAUK   Econsultancy   Neondrum.com   Postal heritage