Hispanic shoppers really like mobile

Hispanic consumers are outpacing non-Hispanics in their adoption of mobile, social and online sources for local shopping, according to BIA/Kelsey's Consumer Commerce Monitor study released this week.

According to the study's findings, nearly a quarter (23.6%) of Hispanic consumers reported they use tablets for local shopping, compared with 15.5% of non-Hispanics. And nearly half (48.5%) of Hispanic consumers use mobile devices for local shopping, compared with 32% of non-Hispanics. Among mobile Hispanic consumers, 52.5% report using their tablets and 42.5% report using their smartphones daily for local shopping.

"How the Hispanic consumer shops will affect how a local business advertises and builds loyalty with this community," stated Celine Matthiessen, VP analysis and insights, BIA/Kelsey. "An integrated social, mobile and loyalty strategy will be a necessity to attract this demographic, as Hispanic consumers are very loyal to local businesses. Hispanic respondents to the CCM study reported that they supported an average of six businesses by becoming a fan or follower or liking a local business."

Hispanic and non-Hispanic consumers rely more on search engines than mobile apps for local shopping. As many as 61% of Hispanic consumers and 69% of non-Hispanics reported they "mostly use search engines" on a tablet or smartphone for local shopping. And while their mobile app usage is significantly lower than their use of search engines, Hispanics rely more on mobile apps for local shopping than non-Hispanics, by nearly two to one. Approximately 17% of Hispanic consumers reported they "mostly use apps" on a tablet or smartphone for local shopping, compared with 9% for non-Hispanics. In addition, Hispanic consumers reported using 5.1 mobile apps, on average, for daily shopping, compared with 2.7 apps for non-Hispanic consumers.

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 as compared to 10.3% by non-Hispanics;


• Yahoo: 16.8% by Hispanics as compared to 16.4% by non-Hispanics;


• Google+: 11.9% by Hispanics as compared to 10.8% by non-Hispanics; and


• Twitter: 11.1% by Hispanics as compared to 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.