Much of our shopping habits are undergoing a radical transformation. How we buy or offer a gift to someone special in our life is may evolve rapidly with the use of emerging new technologies, social channels and mobile devices. In a comprehensive report published Feb. 2015 by Technology Company, eGifter, the findings allude to how traditions and tendencies have been disrupted when gifting.
The report titled eGifter Trends in Digital Gifting Study looked at how several technologies are reshaping consumer buying or gifting habits. The gradual integration of e-commerce, social media and mobile devices altogether have altered the gifting game. In other words, within specific situations or during important life events many opportunities exist to better leverage all of this measurable activity, so it can generate more gifting revenue for retailers.
One of the key drivers or components that unleashes all of this rich data is gifting. According to the report, there are many important events where consumers will go out of their way to purchase something for a friend or a family member. For example, specific holidays in the year will determine the likelihood someone will be receiving an eGift. Below is a list of the most important dates with the percentages in which consumers will most likely purchase:
Holiday season (96 percent)Birthdays close family (86 percent)Mothers Day (52 percent)Birthdays friends (45 percent)Valentines Day (39 percent)
Social media is proving that beyond its day-to-day use it is a gifting trigger. The findings were that 19 percent of consumers reported that social media reminders such as Facebook birthday notifications played a decisive role to give a gift in the past year. What is even more astounding 52 percent stated this same platform influenced the decision to give a gift that was not originally planned. The takeaway is social media has a multifaceted impact. If you combine a mobile-friendly with frictionless platform the potentials are significant for businesses.
So I think it is up to the big retailers who are going to own a lot of this market to invest early. That is the trajectory we are anticipating and its happening. Big data marketing that plays out the crossroads of social and mobile will become more and more a reality this year, said eGifter CEO and co-founder Tyler Roye. Heavy investments will be made in algorithms to try to find what is relevant, and gifting is a treasure trove of life event and personal preference data contained in the social graph. People are Liking stuff, Pinning stuff, and eventually the buy button from Facebook will become a natural part of everybodys day to day at some point.
The CEO went on to explain that all of these emerging technologies are going revamp traditions and shift the practices of gifting. At the same time this technology disruption will turn the payment industry upside down and digital gift cards will continue to be used throughout these systems.
Gift cards may be perceived as impersonal, but they are instrumental for this discussion. How are they useful and connected to gifting? Gifting is the central theme to this predicament. So if you use the rich information, the social graph, the personal preference and intertwine those to smart social reminders it rewards the entire process.
All of these technologies can help tailor more closely the gift you are wanting to get and removes the hassles of returning or exchanging gifts. The Gifting model can now be perfected and retailers can increase their business by implementing the technologies that conveniently simplify the shopping experience.
I think the most meaningful takeaways were kind of thoughtfully touched upon in the report. I think at a high level some are riding the notion that those four pieces create an enormous perfect storm. Its that social reminders (which are rich with live events) personal preference data, together with convenient mobile payments and of course the big data which connects that social data into an experience. So you got the social, the big data, and the mobile. So when you put the three together in particular in the gifting area you have a lot of that data, such as its my birthday being the obvious one. When you wind up those things together you cannot argue that its going to be a tremendous uptick in impulsive low price point, and easy gifting, concluded Roye.
The web and mobile social gifting company conducted the survey of more than 1,200 U.S consumers to explore the gifting patterns of behavior and analyze their perception of new technologies. The study was completed between two to three months.
Click Here
garyserrano4 Community Member 
|
|
