Mobile Use and Implications for Retail

According to a new report from App Annie on age and usage behavior, email is slowly dying as a communication tool with younger users. For ages 13-24, messaging apps are taking over. Meanwhile, the older crowds (45+) spend far more time on traditional desktop apps such as email and browser.

Email dying as a communication tool is probably not too surprising, it is good to get actual stats against this behavior.

What is interesting, however, are the shopper implications.

  • For younger audiences, it’s a mobile-first culture.Messaging apps are now used as a gateway to the rest of the net and more and more platforms are adding e-commerce. As this age enters the workforce and gains more financial spending power, their comfort of using mobile will be key in future shopper programs. They will also be more comfortable with more innovative technology.
  • For ages 25-44, they spend the most time of age segments on retailer apps making this tool a vital consideration for programs.
  • For 45+, they may spend the least time on retailer apps and are less apt to adapt to newer innovative UX, but they should not be discounted. They still represent the top of consumer expenditure in the US (US Bureau of Labor Statistics, Consumer Expenditure Surveys 2015). Also, their smartphone penetration continues to soar as younger segments steadily

(While this initial report does focus on Android users in the U.S., it’s very likely these trends would extend to iOS users as well if the data was added.)

Image Source: “Smartphone” by Christian Hornick is licensed under CC BY 2.0