Back to School Consumers Browse but Don’t Buy Online - Mobile Posse Surveys Millions of Consumers, via their Mobile Phones, to Determine Back to School Shopping Behaviors

McLean, VA, September 04, 2011 --(PR.com)-- Mobile Posse, Inc., the leading provider of mobile home screen CRM and advertising solutions, today announced the latest results of Mobile Insights, a weekly survey that takes the pulse of consumers nationwide. This week’s survey focused on back to school shopping and was received by more than 2.3 million people. The survey revealed that only 3.7 percent of consumers plan to do back to school shopping online.

Although 71.2 percent of consumers shop online(1) and back to school shopping helped increase visits to consumer goods sites by almost 13 percent in Jul(2), Mobile Posse's Back to School Survey showed that more than 96 percent of consumers plan to head to retailers and bypass online shopping for this year’s back to school shopping.

While more than 22 percent of consumers plan to spend more than $100 on back to school shopping, 29.2 percent expect to spend $26-$50. Despite the fact that a majority of shoppers will spend more than the threshold for free shipping, they will still physically visit retailers for their purchases.

“While moms are browsing online for back to school, this is not translating into purchase as the majority of them are heading to retailers,” said Nathan Hamme, Mobile Posse analyst. "Marketers need to boost online purchases by emphasizing the variety and low prices of items online, offering free shipping, and promoting online ordering of supply kits that can be picked up or delivered."

Mobile Posse’s survey also revealed that nearly 40 percent of consumers say that “low prices everyday” is most important when shopping for school supplies, followed by “sales” for 35 percent of the audience. One third (32.5 percent) of consumers plan to shop at a discount store and only a small percentage (6.5 percent) care about specific product availability.

“Mobile Posse’s reach and engagement level among mobile consumers via the mobile phone home screen makes it the perfect platform for gathering insight into this valuable audience,” said Jon Jackson, CEO of Mobile Posse. “Our audience is 100 percent opt-in and similar to the advertisements that run on our platform, our surveys also yield double digit response rates.”

About Mobile Posse:
Mobile Posse, Inc. is the leading provider of next–generation mobile marketing and CRM solutions for the home screen. Mobile Posse enables advertisers, content providers, and wireless carriers to proactively reach more than 8 million consumers through the prime real–estate on the mobile phone. The first company to commercially launch graphically–rich and interactive home screen programming in North America, Mobile Posse delivers a superior experience for consumers and industry–leading results for marketers. With average double-digit click-through rates and low start-up costs, active home screen advertising campaigns deliver greater ROI for advertisers than any other advertising medium, mobile or terrestrial Mobile Posse powers home screen content and advertising delivery solutions for leading national and regional wireless carriers. Founded in 2005 and privately held, Mobile Posse is headquartered in McLean, VA. For more information about Mobile Posse, please visit mobileposse.com.

Survey Methodology
The survey was conducted by Mobile Posse from August 2-4, 2011 and is part of Mobile Posse’s Mobile Insights, an ongoing weekly survey of mobile users nationwide. This survey was delivered to more than 2.3 million mobile phone users via the Mobile Posse application and generated more than 150,000 responses.

(1) eMarketer, 2011 US Retail Ecommerce Forecast: Growth Opportunities in a Maturing Channel
(2) ComScore, 2011

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