The near-total proliferation of consumer mobile devices has led many retailers to a dangerous assumption: because shoppers are able to research and buy their products at any time, they want to and will do so around the clock. However, retailers who do away with concepts of targeted advertising in favor of carpet-bombing push notification approaches run the risk of fatiguing their shoppers at best and turning them into anti-brand activists at worst.
That begs the question: Just when are consumers ready to use their mobile devices to shop? According to a study conducted by PayPal Canada and Ipsos, the answer is a frustratingly logical one: during their commutes.
Ipsos and PayPal Canada found that 14 percent of Canadian commuters using public transit with Internet access through smartphones and tablets regularly research products and place orders during their trips to and from work. If 14 percent doesn’t seem monumental enough, 76 percent of all customers surveyed said they “would consider buying a wide range of products if mobile shopping options were easily available.” About 45 percent of Canada’s commuters travel between 30 minutes and an hour to get to and from work, and 33 percent spend more than an hour in transit daily. While this isn’t the 24-hour-long engagement window that some retailers may still be grasping for, it’s still a dedicated period in which consumers are a relatively captive audience showing demonstrated interest in retail activities.
Canadian commuters already shopping during transit spend an average of $397 every month, though these products are split across several categories, including:
Kerry Reynolds, head of consumer marketing at PayPal Canada, explained that while a vast array of options is key to the rise of commuter commerce, streamlined shopping and checkout processes are arguably as, if not more, important to continuing sales.
“We work with a wide range of retailers to provide mobile-friendly shopping experiences for Canadians,” Reynolds said in a statement. “When paying with PayPal, people don’t need to enter shipping and billing details to shop from their phones on a crowded streetcar, which is a great fit for commuters. PayPal predicts that whether it’s gifts or groceries, commuter commerce will boom in Canada as savvy commuters use their time efficiently to shop from their smartphone while on the move.”
While commuter commerce seems to be off and running, nearly 45 percent of respondents cited the lack of cellphone reception and Wi-Fi on public transit as serious obstacles to their shopping activities. Especially as trains move through underground tunnels where signal strength can be spotty, ensuring connectivity is crucial to fostering this type of behavior. However, Alex Arifuzzaman, partner at InterStratics Consultants, told the Toronto Star that even municipalities are starting to install Wi-Fi on public transit as Internet access becomes increasingly viewed along the same lines as other necessary services.
“Wi-Fi is becoming ubiquitous,” Arifuzzaman said. “It was a luxury in the past. It’s slowly transforming from a luxury to a utility.”
As wireless carriers begin to crack down on mobile data usage, providing free Wi-Fi for commuters could prove crucial to maintaining and fostering a growing culture of commuter commerce. Retailers might explore sponsorship opportunities in this area as well; if commuters already engaged in shopping know that their free Internet is courtesy of a specific retailer, it’s hard to imagine its site not getting a few hits through login pages and a few sales from idle commuters in search of some retail therapy before they strap in for a long day at work.