Holiday Shoppers Increasingly Choose Mobile Over Mall: Rackspace Study

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With Black Friday in the bricks-n-mortar space increasingly chaotic, many shoppers opt for online purchasing for the holidays, and more are using mobile devices.

This post original appeared on The WHIR.

More than three-quarters of shoppers plan to skip the lines at the mall in favor of sitting in front of their computer or tablet to do at least some of their holiday shopping this year, according to a new Rackspace Hosting survey.

The survey of 4,000 UK and US adults released this week found that 69 percent of respondents intend to buy gifts online, while 14 percent are planning on shopping online to purchase travel tickets to see family and friends over the holiday season.

Tablets & Mobile Impact Purchases

With 18 percent of shoppers in the survey planning to use their tablet to shop, check-out procedures and website performance on mobile need to be a major consideration for ecommerce shops, particularly at this time of year. Last year, only 10 percent of respondents planned to shop this way.

Sixteen percent of shoppers this year plan on using their smartphone to make purchases, up from 10 percent last year.

Despite the popularity of shopping online around the holidays, 55 percent of shoppers experienced online frustrations last Christmas, with 44 percent abandoning their purchase, and 34 percent trying a different website.

Complicated check-out procedures and slow-loading websites account for the majority of shopping cart abandonment, according to Rackspace.

“Our study suggests that this may be the most connected Christmas ever. This means that all businesses with an online presence – not just retailers – need to ensure they have the hosting infrastructure and support in place to deal with inevitable traffic peaks over the entire festive season,” John Engates, CTO Rackspace said. “Imagine the frustration if you are unable to shop at a certain website before Christmas, or use an app with your brand new tablet on Christmas Day. With so much to gain or lose over the festive season, it’s high time for businesses to ensure that such frustrations do not become unwelcome Christmas traditions.”

Of course, performance is only one piece of the puzzle. Consumers should be aware of mobile security risks when using devices to shop online. A recent Trend Micro report showed that the growth of online shopping on Android and Apple devices, increasingly a target for cybercriminals and mobile malware.

This post origThis post original appeared on the WHIR.