Consumer Attitudes & Behavior

Consumer interest in wearables is booming for reasons that retailers should find encouraging.

New research from Mintel reveals that the U.S. wearable technology market is experiencing unprecedented growth, with estimated sales increasing 186% from 2014-2015, reaching $7 billion in 2015.

And despite just one in 10 consumers owning a fitness tracker (12%) or smartwatch (7%), 16% of consumers said they planned to purchase a fitness tracker or smartwatch in the final three months of 2015.

Some major retailers sharply reduced their use of printed free standing inserts (FSIs) last year but the total dollar value of FSIs still grew to a record $515 billion.

The value of free standing insert (FSI) coupons increased 3.7% in 2015 to $515 billion, according to Kantar Media. However, the number of FSI pages distributed fell 8.1% as marketers cut back on pages that didn’t include a coupon. The number of coupons circulated increased nominally versus the prior year, and combined with higher face value led to growth in dollars circulated.

E-commerce retailers might think new customers acquired during the holiday season are a gift, but they many not keep on giving.

Consumers are increasing their use of apps for a specific purpose that should make retailers happy.

According to a new survey of U.S. adults conducted by KRC Research for Verizon, 56% of consumers made a product purchase with a smartphone app in 2015. This figure includes 23% of smartphone owners who purchased a product with an app for the first time.

By age group, 70% of millennials age 18-34 made a product purchase using an app in 2015, an 85% increase from 2014. This led 66% of Gen Xers and 39% of Baby Boomers who did so.

When providing the BDO retail IPO outlook for 2015 at the beginning of this year, we asked: Will consumer businesses face a potential Alibaba hangover in 2015?

The NFC/contactless ecosystem will grow in 2016, with an increasingly number of third-party wallets coming from the likes of Samsung and Google.

That’s just one of seven payment predictions contained in a new infographic from the Ingenico Group.

To see the infographic, click here.

When providing the BDO retail IPO outlook for 2015 at the beginning of this year, we asked: Will consumer businesses face a potential Alibaba hangover in 2015?
 

Even in today’s expanding market of digital payment options, cash remains a leading payment form.

That’s according to a survey of over 1,000 consumers by Cardtronics. It shows that in spite of people having access to and using a greater variety of payment methods, cash remains widely used and frequently selected for making all sorts of payments.