College
students prefer to shop online from their laptop or smartphone, rather than
using a tablet or other computerized device.
In a new
student panel survey from NACS OnCampus Research, 82.5% of respondents said
they had shopped on their laptop at least once in the preceding 90 days. On
average, they made 3.2 purchases via the laptop.
More than
70% indicated they shopped on their smartphone during the same time period,
transacting almost two purchases on the device on average. In contrast, just
29.7% went shopping on a desktop computer, 28.2% on a tablet, 5.2% on a
transformer or hybrid device, 2.2% on a netbook, and 1.4% on an e-reader.
Approximately
37.4% of students admitted to browsing for merchandise information or buying
something on their phone every single day. Even so, shopping ranked just 11th
on the list of 13 daily activities students conduct during the 5.2 hours they average
on their phones. Topping that list, not unexpectedly, was text messaging (96%),
searching the Internet (89.3%), accessing email (89.2%), social networking
(80.7%), and phone calls (78.6%).
At the
bottom of the list were video messages (11.4%) and reading books, magazines,
and other materials (17.2%).
The survey also
showed that many students don’t regard certain small electronics to be “mobile.”
Nearly all students consider a smartphone to be mobile and 63.2% would apply that
term to tablets. However, fewer than half of students think of iPods, laptops,
e-readers, hybrid devices, and netbooks as mobile—possibly because they don’t
use these devices away from home, unlike phones and tablets. Educators,
marketers, retailers, and others who refer to “mobile” devices in discussions
and promotions might want to clarify that for a student audience.
