Mobile group buying behavior on mobile phones and tablets

“When we are not shopping, we are on the way to shopping.” Online shopping has reshaped people’s shopping habits, and today, when mobile devices allow shopping anytime and anywhere, “shopping routes” are also subtly changing.

The research on online group buying consumers jointly monitored by First Quadrant and Yipai shows that mobile group buying has been gaining popularity in the first quarter of 2012. Group buying can be done anytime and anywhere, and shopping can be done anytime and anywhere. Mobile phones and tablets, as the two most widely used mobile devices, are leading the development of mobile group buying.

Figure: Group buying users’ browsing paths and changing trends of group buying websites

(Data source: Group buying consumer research in the first quarter of 2012, 2011Q3 base = 1576, 2011Q4 base = 1160, 2012Q1 base = 1429)

In the first quarter of 2011, among the three ways to browse group-buying websites, computer usage still ranked first, with 97.41% of group-buying users browsing group-buying websites via computer in the past month. The second was mobile phones (39.33%), and the proportion of other mobile terminals such as iPads was 20.50%.

Compared with the previous two periods, the computer usage rate has approached saturation and remained stable at over 97%. Thanks to the popularity of smart phones and tablets, as well as group buying websites seizing the opportunity to launch mobile clients, the usage rate of mobile phones and other mobile terminals has been on an upward trend.

The marketing concept of "channel is king" still applies to online group buying. Influenced by browsing channels, group buying channels also show the same trend: the growth rate of mobile terminals.

Figure: Group buying users’ purchase channels and changing trends

(Data source: Group buying consumer research in the first quarter of 2012, 2011Q3 base = 1576, 2011Q4 base = 1160, 2012Q1 base = 1429)

Among the three group purchasing channels, computers have the highest usage rate of 96.43%; mobile phones and other mobile terminals have usage rates of 23.02% and 12.46% respectively.

Compared with the previous two periods, the utilization rate of computers remained basically unchanged, while the utilization rate of mobile phones and other mobile terminals increased to a certain extent.

The rapid popularization of mobile terminals is largely due to mobile phones and tablet computers.

When using mobile terminals to browse group purchase information, mobile phones have the highest usage rate, reaching 39.33%; iPad and other tablet computers have the second highest usage rate, reaching 18.82%; other mobile terminals have a total of 3.43%. When using mobile terminals to make purchases, mobile phones still have the highest usage rate, reaching 23.02%; iPad and other tablet computers are the second highest, reaching 11.13%; other mobile terminals have a total of 2.31%. Mobile phones and tablet computers deservedly become the two most important mobile devices for group purchase consumption.

(Online shopping consumer research is a continuous study conducted by the First Quadrant and Yipai Joint Research; sample size: 1429 )