The most notable similarity is that both genders make the majority of local purchases in person. According to BIA/Kelsey’s Consumer Commerce Monitor™, 66.6 percent of men and 65.2 percent of women purchase products and services in person from local sources.

Because consumers make most purchases at physical locations, reaching them at or near those locations is a good bet; enter mobile marketing. How to reach them on mobile devices, however, is where we see differences by gender.

Women are socially engaged, so social advertising is essential. According to Nielsen, the majority of mobile social network users are female, so it’s understood that a lot of their social network usage is done via mobile device.

Because Facebook is the most used social media site for local shopping by women, it is important for local businesses to establish a Facebook page and form relationships with female consumers. This could include promotional opportunities on Facebook pages that female consumers can redeem at physical business locations.

Men, as we’ve discussed, are more engaged with mobile devices. They also interact more with traditional media than women do. TV in fact is men’s most used source for local shopping (women’s is online search), according to Consumer Commerce Monitor.

To effectively reach men, local businesses should therefore maintain advertising through traditional media. But when doing so, traditional media can be used to drive traffic towards digital opportunities. This is especially true for mobile, given that the data indicate men are highly engaged there.

CCM data also indicate that local businesses can benefit from mobile advertising and innovation at their physical locations. This includes smartphone scan loyalty programs.

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Not only do consumers use these devices for shopping locally, but they do so frequently. Thirty-three percent of tablet users and 40.3 percent of smartphone users use them once a day or more for shopping locally.

There is an apparent disconnect between consumer’s heavy use of smartphones and tablets to shop and SMBs adoption of advertising with these devices. SMBs are devoting just 5 percent of their total ad spend to mobile advertising, according to BIA/Kelsey‘s Local Commerce Monitor™. That 5 percent is spread among SMS, search, display, and other forms of advertising on smartphones and tablets.

Looking just at apps we see that 17.1 percent of consumer use apps regularly for local shopping and 3 percent make purchases based on apps. Only 9 percent of SMBs are tapping into this market and use apps for advertising.

While only a small portion of SMB budgets are going towards advertising through smartphones and tablets, its is providing big returns. Four of the top 10 media, based on ROI, are related to advertising through these devices. Mobile deals, mobile apps, mobile banners and location aware mobile ads all were felt to have provided SMBs with between 10 and over 20 times the return on spending by at least 40 percent of SMBs who utilize them.

Not only are SMBs who participate in advertising with smartphones and tablets seeing big results, the consumer base for use of these devices when shopping locally is expected to grow. Fourteen percent of those who do not currently use a tablet or smartphone for shopping locally say they plan to do so in the next six months. So for all of the SMBs out there who are not capitalizing on the mobile advertising opportunity, it is definitely a move that would be wise to make.

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BIA/Kelsey’s Consumer Commerce Monitor survey reveals that online search is now the most popular channel choice for local shopping (nearly 57 percent on consumers utilize it in their buying process). The trend is further accelerating as mobile penetration and session activity surge. For instance, 40 percent of consumers who leverage smartphones for local shopping do so once or more per day.

All of this points to the critical need for small-medium businesses (SMBs) to maintain accurate, fresh, engaging and non-duplicated content. Duplicate listings can confuse consumers and harm SEO rank, both of which impair the discoverability and selectability of a merchant.

On Thursday, June 5 at 2 p.m. eastern, Yext’s Christian Ward and Local SEO Guide’s Andrew Shotland join me for a free webinar examining the duplicates problem and proposing solutions and best practices for overcoming it. BIA/Kelsey will also share findings from its Local Commerce Monitor and Consumer Commerce Monitor studies that identify key disconnects between consumer shopping trends and SMB advertising/promotions habits, which are exacerbated by duplicates.

Also, attendees can access the new whitepaper from Yext – “The Definitive Guide to Duplicate Listings.” Register for the free webinar here.

The post Upcoming BIA/Kelsey & Yext Webinar: Solving the Duplicate Listings Problem appeared first on BIA/Kelsey - Local Media Watch.

BIA/Kelsey’s Consumer Commerce Monitor survey reveals that online search is now the most popular channel choice for local shopping (nearly 57 percent on consumers utilize it in their buying process). The trend is further accelerating as mobile penetration and session activity surge. For instance, 40 percent of consumers who leverage smartphones for local shopping do so once or more per day.

All of this points to the critical need for small-medium businesses (SMBs) to maintain accurate, fresh, engaging and non-duplicated content. Duplicate listings can confuse consumers and harm SEO rank, both of which impair the discoverability and selectability of a merchant.

On Thursday, June 5 at 2 p.m. eastern, Yext’s Christian Ward and Local SEO Guide’s Andrew Shotland join me for a free webinar examining the duplicates problem and proposing solutions and best practices for overcoming it. BIA/Kelsey will also share findings from its Local Commerce Monitor and Consumer Commerce Monitor studies that identify key disconnects between consumer shopping trends and SMB advertising/promotions habits, which are exacerbated by duplicates.

Also, attendees can access the new whitepaper from Yext – “The Definitive Guide to Duplicate Listings.” Register for the free webinar here.

The post Upcoming BIA/Kelsey & Yext Webinar: Solving the Duplicate Listings Problem appeared first on BIA/Kelsey - Local Media Watch.

When it comes to local shopping, female consumers interact much more on social media than their male counterparts. According to BIA/Kelsey’s Consumer Commerce Monitor™, 49.1% of females interact with or use social media regarding local purchases compared to only 37% of males. Seventy-one percent of women cite Facebook as their preferred social media site for local shopping. Women also strongly value the opinions of the Facebook Friends with 51.9% considering them to be a trustworthy or very trustworthy source of information for local products and services. Men were not as quick to trust their Facebook Friends with only 44% considering them to be a trustworthy or very trust worthy source.

Women are also heavy general users of social media sites. Approximately 77.4% of women actively use Facebook while only 63.3% of men do the same. Pinterest is dominated by females with three times more women actively using it then men.

Social media is not the only way for local businesses to to reach female consumers.  Women are also active on their mobile devices. In my previous blog post I discussed that men were more engaged than women on their mobile devices and are more willing to try the new and exciting technology that is emerging on the local front, but more women use their mobile devices for local shopping more than men in general. About 39.1% of women use smartphones when shopping locally while only 34.8% of men do the same. Women are also using their mobile devices on the go much more than men. Approximately 74.8% of women use smartphones in store as opposed to 58.8% of men, 72% of women use them in public as opposed to 64% of men, and 66.1%  of women use them in transit as opposed to 51.5% of men.

To learn more about women and their shopping habits check out BIA/Kelsey’s Consumer Commerce Monitor page.

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Smartphones are becoming increasingly more involved in the shopping process with a lot of technology coming out that is slowly starting to enable smartphones to replace credit cards, loyalty cards and much more. When asked about the use of smartphone scanned code loyalty programs, 27.2% of men were a part of loyalty programs that allowed them to register their purchases in this way while only 16.6% of women were part of one. Men are also twice as likely to have a digital wallet than women and 38.7% of men who use a smartphone when shopping locally have occasionally or often used a smartphone to scan a bar-code.

Not only are men quicker to adopt new functions for their mobile device in-terms of shopping locally than women, but those who use their mobile devices for shopping locally do so more frequently. Of the male respondents, 36.4% use tablets for local shopping once a day (or more) compared to only 29.0% of women and 43.1% of men use smartphones once a day (or more) compared to only 38.0% of women.

Want to know more about advertising to male vs. female consumers? Stay tuned for more details on BIA/Kelsey’s upcoming spotlight deck about our gender specific findings from our Consumer Commerce Monitor.

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Millennials, those between the ages of 18-34, are making social e-commerce more prevalent than ever. According to our Consumer Commerce Monitor™ survey, 56 % of millennial local consumers said that they have interacted with social media in the past 6 months at some point in the purchase funnel and that 32% of all local purchases made in the last year were made online.

While social media may not have the critical significance of mobile, it is becoming increasingly crucial for ecommerce success. If SMBs are ever going to fully commit to goals of social ecommerce, they must integrate the strategy at all points of the consumer purchase funnel. According to our CCM survey data, 49% of millennial consumers reported using social media more often now than they did in the past year for local shopping.

Social networks are strongest as sources of retail influence and product discovery. Roughly a quarter of U.S. social network users have made a purchase on a retail web site after clicking from a social network in the past year, according to a report from Javelin Strategy & Research. According to our CCM survey, 66% of all millennial consumers go to Facebook when they used a social network for local shopping, followed by YouTube (20%), Google+ (16%) and Twitter (14%). Also, 59% of millennial consumers also ranked Facebook as the number one choice for local shopping. Social media was rated the most influential in these top five verticals among millennial local shopping habits:

Source: BIA/Kelsey’s Consumer Commerce Monitor™ (CCM), 2013.

The future of social e-commerce looks promising for small businesses if they can get it right. Let’s take a look at some quick facts about what SMBs are currently doing to capture millennial shoppers. According to our Local Commerce Monitor survey:

— 52% of all SMBs have a Facebook Business Page utilized for advertising or promotion. Followed by 25% of SMBs using Google+ and 24% using Twitter.

— 38% of SMBs use their Facebook pages to acquire new business and customers. Another 27% use it as an awareness and promotion tool.

— 85% of SMBs listed social media as a future marketing priority.

Many SMBs are still trying to understand how best to deliver content to millennial consumers via their social media and ecommerce channels while also reaching new prospects. Advertising on social channels like Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest can be the communication channels needed to garner attention. While there is some debate about the overall value of social advertising, it is hard to argue that it offers some of the best targeting available to business owners; especially when their target audience is spending an increasing amount of time on social media.

The post SMBs to Marry Social Media and E-commerce Strategies to Win Millennials appeared first on BIA/Kelsey - Local Media Watch.

According to Dr. Fratrik, Hispanic consumers surveyed showed “a greater use of digital devices and using them for local shopping behavior. One driving force for this overall result is the younger age distribution (in our sample and in the U.S. overall) of the Hispanic community, as compared to the non-Hispanic community. I was also particularly struck by the percentages of Hispanics (vs. non-Hispanics) who use these digital devices every day for local shopping.”

As you can see in the chart above, Hispanic consumers are more likely to have adopted mobile devices and use them daily for shopping for local products and services than non-Hispanic consumers.

— Tablet: 23.6% Hispanics vs. 15.5% non-Hispanics
— Smartphone: 48.5% Hispanics vs 32% non-Hispanics

When using social media for local shopping, Hispanic consumers index higher than non-Hispanics on all social media networks, except Facebook, with 61% of Hispanics and 67% of non-Hispanics reporting they use Facebook for local shopping. Other social networks used for local shopping include:

— YouTube: 17.7% by Hispanics vs. 10.3% by non-Hispanics

— Yahoo: 16.8% by Hispanics vs. 16.4% by non-Hispanics

— Google+: 11.9% by Hispanics vs. 10.8% by non-Hispanics

— Twitter: 11.1% by Hispanics vs. 6.7% by non-Hispanics

Despite their heavy social media use, 83.2% of Hispanic consumers list family and friends as their most trustworthy source for local shopping information.

Webinar details and online registration for “Hispanic Consumers Buy Into Digital for Local Shopping” are available here.

Interested in learning more about Consumer Commerce Monitor? Check out BIA/Kelsey’s CCM page.

The post A Sneak Peek at “Hispanic Consumers Buy Into Digital for Local Shopping” Webinar appeared first on BIA/Kelsey - Local Media Watch.

According to Dr. Fratrik, Hispanic consumers surveyed showed “a greater use of digital devices and using them for local shopping behavior. One driving force for this overall result is the younger age distribution (in our sample and in the U.S. overall) of the Hispanic community, as compared to the non-Hispanic community. I was also particularly struck by the percentages of Hispanics (vs. non-Hispanics) who use these digital devices every day for local shopping.”

As you can see in the chart above, Hispanic consumers are more likely to have adopted mobile devices and use them daily for shopping for local products and services than non-Hispanic consumers.

— Tablet: 23.6% Hispanics vs. 15.5% non-Hispanics
— Smartphone: 48.5% Hispanics vs 32% non-Hispanics

When using social media for local shopping, Hispanic consumers index higher than non-Hispanics on all social media networks, except Facebook, with 61% of Hispanics and 67% of non-Hispanics reporting they use Facebook for local shopping. Other social networks used for local shopping include:

— YouTube: 17.7% by Hispanics vs. 10.3% by non-Hispanics

— Yahoo: 16.8% by Hispanics vs. 16.4% by non-Hispanics

— Google+: 11.9% by Hispanics vs. 10.8% by non-Hispanics

— Twitter: 11.1% by Hispanics vs. 6.7% by non-Hispanics

Despite their heavy social media use, 83.2% of Hispanic consumers list family and friends as their most trustworthy source for local shopping information.

Webinar details and online registration for “Hispanic Consumers Buy Into Digital for Local Shopping” are available here.

Interested in learning more about Consumer Commerce Monitor? Check out BIA/Kelsey’s CCM page.

The post A Sneak Peek at "Hispanic Consumers Buy Into Digital for Local Shopping" Webinar appeared first on BIA/Kelsey - Local Media Watch.

When Hispanics shop locally they use social media more than non-Hispanic consumers; and when shopping they interact more with social media, 46% vs. 41% (in the last 6 months). Hispanic consumers’ rank Facebook, YouTube and Twitter as the most used social media sites. When they use social sites for local shopping, Hispanic consumers rank Facebook as their top source followed by YouTube and Google+.

Despite Hispanic consumers relying on social media and mobile devices while shopping locally, recommendations from friends and family still ranked as the most trustworthy source of information on local products and services (83%), followed by Facebook friends (56%).

According to the survey, Hispanic consumers are more likely to have adopted mobile devices and use them daily for shopping for local products and services than non-Hispanic consumers.
— Tablet: 23.6% Hispanics vs. 15.5% non-Hispanics
— Smartphone: 48.5% Hispanics vs 32% non-Hispanics

Hispanic consumers report using mobile devices when shopping for local products and services more frequently than non-Hispanic consumers. 52.5% of Hispanic consumers reported using a tablet daily for local shopping, and 42.5% reported using a smartphone. In contrast, 29% of non-Hispanics report using a tablet daily for local shopping and 38% use their smartphone. “One driving force for this overall result is the younger age distribution (in our sample and in the U.S. overall) of the Hispanic community, as compared to the non-Hispanic community,” said Dr. Mark Fratrik, BIA/Kelsey’s Senior Vice President and Chief Economist.

BIA/Kelsey will present data on Hispanic digital media usage and local shopping behaviors from its Consumer Commerce Monitor study during a free webinar this Thursday, February 27th.

Interested in learning more about Consumer Commerce Monitor? Check out BIA/Kelsey’s CCM page.

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