ATLANTA, Dec. 05, 2016 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- With high-tech purchases expected to account for a major portion of consumer holiday spending this year, UPS has launched a 2016 UPS How to Click with High-Tech Online Shoppers study to help retailers gain insights into how to win with high-tech shoppers. According to the Consumer Technology Association (CTA), 68 percent of consumers – roughly 170 million people – plan to purchase technology gifts this holiday season.
High-tech purchasers have made significantly more purchases on their smartphones in 2016 (42 percent) versus purchasers of non-high-tech items (27 percent). High-tech purchasers are also heavy users of social media, with 42 percent following retailers’ social channels. Thirty-seven percent of high-tech purchasers say that social media influences their purchasing decisions and 25 percent are making purchases on social media sites.
While high-tech purchasers do a lot of shopping online, 46 percent of their purchases are made in store and 58 percent of these shoppers prefer to make returns to the store.
“High-tech shoppers have distinctive purchasing behaviors, and retailers need to look at what motivates them and influences their decisions across the shopping experience from pre-purchase through purchase, delivery and returns,” said David Roegge, Director of High-Tech Segment Marketing, UPS. “These shoppers hold a lot of purchasing power this holiday season, and it’s important to understand what makes them click.”
The UPS How to Click with High-Tech Online Shoppers study reveals what high-tech online purchasers want in their shopping experience. Findings show that high-tech purchasers are much like the high-tech industry. They are:
- Hyper connected: Always online, heavy users of mobile and frequent users of social media in the shopping experience
- Explorers: On the hunt for choices, convenience and deals and look to multiple sources of information to inform purchase decisions
- Convenience-centric: Embrace the store as part of the shopping experience and look for easy returns experiences and convenient delivery options
“Offering a seamless experience across channels, empowering shoppers with information, looking for ways to add value through recommendations, deals and promotions and providing convenient options from pre-purchase to delivery and returns will help retailers get ahead with high-tech shoppers,” said Roegge. “UPS offers a broad suite of services to help high-tech companies of all sizes deliver an enhanced customer experience across the shopping journey.”
High-tech shoppers can take advantage of services such as: UPS My Choice ® service, which gives them control over when and where they receive their high-tech product deliveries and has more than 30 million members globally; Follow My Delivery, which provides real-time delivery progress information on critical, high-tech and high-value packages and allows consumers to make changes; and the UPS Access Point™ network, which includes more than 25,000 convenient alternate delivery locations worldwide.
Other findings from the study include:
- Information sources: The top three information sources that influence high-tech purchasers are: marketplaces, customer ratings and search engines. Compared to non-high-tech purchasers, high-tech purchasers use mobile advertising, social media and price comparison sites much more frequently.
- Peer reviews: High-tech purchasers find peer reviews (61 percent) more important versus non-high-tech purchasers (55 percent)
- Recommendations and promotions: High-tech purchasers are more heavily influenced by emails with product recommendations based on what others have purchased, posts on social media and text messages with promotions versus non-high-tech purchasers
- Delivery preferences: High-tech purchasers prefer alternative delivery locations (39 percent) more than non-high-tech purchasers (31 percent)
For more information on the UPS study, visit, pressroom.ups.com .
Survey methodology
Conducted by comScore in January and February 2016, the 2016 UPS How to Click with High-Tech Online Shoppers study analyzes data from 5,330 U.S. online shoppers. High-tech purchasers are defined as someone who purchased a computer, consumer electronic device, mobile phone or wearable device online.
About UPS
UPS (NYSE: UPS) is a global leader in logistics, offering a broad range of solutions including transporting packages and freight; facilitating international trade, and deploying advanced technology to more efficiently manage the world of business. Headquartered in Atlanta, UPS serves more than 220 countries and territories worldwide. The company can be found on the web at ups.com ® and its corporate blog can be found at longitudes.ups.com . To get UPS news direct, visit pressroom.ups.com/RSS or follow @UPS_News .
About comScore comScore, Inc. (NASDAQ: SCOR) is a global leader in digital measurement and analytics, delivering insights on web, mobile and TV consumer behavior that enable clients to maximize the value of their digital investments. For more information, please visit www.comscore.com/companyinfo .
Vikki Conwell 404-828-6091 vconwell@ups.com Rebecca Harbin 404-870-6825 rebecca.harbin@mslgroup.com
