Americans Spend a Lot of Time Online

A new study from the Pew Research Center found that Americans head online quite often. In fact, 73% of respondents said they use the Internet “almost constantly,” while just 7% reported using it less often than “several times a week.”

Younger generations lead the Internet charge. More than 90% of teens said they go online daily, while 36% of those ages 18-29 claimed they were in the “almost constantly” category. Time on the Internet dropped as the age groups got older.

More than 85% of the respondents who owned either a smartphone or a tablet, or both, said they used the Internet daily. Even 65% of those who didn’t have a smartphone or tablet reported logging in on a daily basis, according to a report in Pymnts.com.

Twenty-nine percent of college graduates reported being on the Internet more, compared to just 14% of those with a high school diploma or less. In addition, those earning $75,000 a year (28%) went online more than those earning $30,000 or less (14%).

Students Shop on Phone or Laptop, Not Tablet

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.

Schools Need Better Mobile Options

A number of session presenters at CAMEX 2014 talked about the need for campus stores to use mobile technology and how e-commerce through a mobile website is a must. A study from the brand marketing firm Princeton Partners found that need extends across campus.

Its research showed that 70% of Pennsylvania and New Jersey colleges surveyed had no mobile presence at all and half of the campuses that did had major deficiencies. In addition, six of 10 students surveyed said they were “unlikely to ever return to a website” if they couldn’t access it from their mobile device.

That’s a problem at a time when more people are using their mobile devices to access the web than their personal computer. And the issue is only going to get bigger since 74% of all teenagers have cellphones.

“The rapid increase in use of mobile devices has left many schools ill-equipped to address the needs of what marketers now call ‘constantly connected consumers,’” Jeanne Oswald, an industry advisor to Princeton Partners, told eCampus News.

World Wide Web Turns 25

At 25, the World Wide Web has become an integral part of life. A recent Pew Research study found 87% of adults in the United States use the Internet, 90% admit the Internet has been good for them, and 76% believe it’s been good for society.

In another Pew study, technology experts said that by 2039 access to the Internet will be like flipping a switch for electricity and an Internet of Things will allow artificial intelligence-enhanced, cloud-based information storage and sharing via smartphones, wearable technology, and smart appliances.

Most of the innovation will come about as digital natives grow older. Those individuals are currently in school or on campus.

“The first generation that grew up on the web is hitting maturity,” Jeff Jaffe, CEO of the World Wide Web Consortium, told Computerworld. “Everything that’s happened until recently was with people who weren’t web natives by birth using technology and using it to improve life. I can only imagine when you have digital natives hitting maturity the level of innovation will be even greater.”

Colleges Need to Upgrade Mobile Presence

Recent studies from Pew Research and Google showed that 85% of cellphone users aged 18-29 use their devices to go online and half of that group turn to their phones to surf the web before thinking about using a desktop or laptop device. The studies also found that 61% of all cellphone users said they would probably never return to a website if they had trouble viewing it on their mobile device.

Despite those findings, a new survey reports that a lot of colleges and universities fail to communicate with their target audience through their mobile devices. A survey of 200 public and private schools in New Jersey and Pennsylvania by the marketing agency Princeton Partners found that more than 70% lack a mobile presence and 50% of the schools with a mobile presence were deficient in terms of technology, mobile content, or both, according to a report in University Business.

The survey found that colleges and universities don’t often replicate the content, design, and navigation tools used in their PC-based websites for mobile applications. They also don’t create “mobile responsive” technology solutions that adjust to individuals browsers and devices.

That’s a problem because there’s so much more competition for potential applicants, who are constantly using mobile technology.

“An effective mobile capability can validate that a school is technologically savvy,” said Jeanne Oswald, former executive director of the New Jersey Commission on Higher Education and an industry advisor to Princeton Partners. “As potential students comparatively shop and learn online, institutions of higher learning can enhance brand perception and market engagement by communicating effectively with teens and young adults through their mobile devices.”

New Mobile Shopping Stats

A new report says more time is spent shopping on tablets than smartphones and PC users.  According to Interactive Advertising Bureau UK, 72 percent of tablet owners use their devices weekly to shop.  The average time spent on shopping on tablets was 4.4 hours compared to 2.2 hours for smartphones and 2.9 hours for PC users.

The survey shows that when people buy physical items, 78% respondents use a PC, 63% use a tablet and 39% use a smartphone.  When purchasing a ticket or service 55% use a tablet, 47% use a PC, and 44% use a smartphone.  Other results from the study include:

o   69% of consumers used a tablet to purchase digital downloads, 43% for PC, 44% for smartphones

o   38% use smartphones in the store with 55% conducting search about a product while in the store

o   49% did a price comparison check

o   27% use the smartphone to find shops in their area

o   24% scanned product for more info

o   20% used an app for more product info

The report’s research director says,

 “The research clearly demonstrates the importance of a cross device digital marketing strategy. The more connected devices consumers own, the more their behaviors change and the more complex their purchasing habits become. Those brands and retailers that can best accommodate this changing dynamic will be best placed to generate new sales and capitalize on consumers’ desire to use their smartphone for research and purchase more in the future.”

   

The study was conducted using the general consumers college students but it gives us some indication where the trend is headed.   This study means that the next generation of students on campuses will expect and want more services that they can access remotely.

Hot Book Apps

Interested in learning about what the hottest e-book apps are out there?  Check out this article titled “Boundary-pushing e-books that blow the page away.”  In the article are list of the best of the best e-books that are much more elaborate and interactive and ordinary e-books. 

The First "Smartbook"

There is news that Atria Books plans to insert RFID chip in 1000 copies of the book THE IMPULSE ECONOMY: Understanding Mobile Shoppers and What Makes Them Buy, making it the first “smart book.”   The consumer's can tap their NFC enabled phone to the RFID sticker and the phone will automatically open the phone's mobile web browser on specific book-related content.

"Proximity marketing solutions like NFC will allow for seamless and frictionless interactive experience whether this is for interactive content on your phone or mobile wallet commerce opportunities," says Gary Schwartz, the author of THE IMPULSE ECONOMY. "This new breed of consumer is using the mobile phone in the physical store to select products, research purchases, and act on content."

Atria Books is an imprint of Simon & Schuster, a part of CBS Corporation.

Abilene Christian University's Mobile Education Report Released

Abilene Christian University recently released its mobile education initiative report 2010-2011 that highlights its research projects and surveys on mobile learning on their campus.  In its fourth year of the initiative using iPads, IPhones and IPods, Abilene has attracted national attention during their Connected Open House that brought in people from many other schools.   They recently broke ground on three mobile research centers with a large grant from AT&T.  

"Our efforts are increasingly breaking down the walls of the classroom, removing barriers so teachers and students can engage more fully with and take their learning more easily into the world around them.  We're discovering that the power of mobility comes not only from the ability to access information, but also from the ability to create it, and the creative opportunities during this third year of our initiative have been staggering." says the Director of Educational Innovation Bill Rankin

According to the report, in a survey of 149 faculty members, 89% of faculty members bring mobile devices to class while 84% regularly use the devices in class and half of faculty report using the devices in every class.  Meanwhile, more than 80% of students responded that mobility device usage has improved collaboration in their academic experience, improved communication with teachers, and provided them with increased control of their learning environment.

Lowes Employees Armed and Ready for Tech Savvy Do-It-Yourselfers

Retail Systems Research has another interesting piece of news this week.  Lowes is arming their employees with 42,000 I-phones in order to engage better with the highly knowledgeable weekend warriors-men and women. This is after Home Depot announced its 10,000 Motorola initiative for their employees. The big box chains obviously are getting that "an uninformed, uneducated employee on the selling floor was more damaging than having no employees on the selling floor at all." The i-Phone will feature several functions - inventory checking, showing how-to videos and use lowes.com in store aisles.
The lesson in this article is an age old lesson in retail- engage with your customers and offer the buying experience that they expect.

The future of mobile technology

Great video news story on the BBC last week. BBC news unfortunately does not provide links for embedded video, and you will have to sit through a 15 second advert, but the 7 1/2 minute video is worth the wait.

The story focuses on Microsoft and Intel vs. mobile technology. There is an interesting technology concept twoard the end of the clip about the Motorola Atrix -- the concept being that in the future your full computing power could be in your smartphone, which can be plugged into a desktop/laptop-type docking station. There would be dual operating systems on the device to allow operation of either device platform, but all of your documents, content, books, work, etc., goes with you wherever you go. That presents some interesting implications and opportunities, and gives new meaning to the BYOC (bring your own computer) concept for both employees and students.

My favorite quote from the video appears early on, but is true for many retailers and probably much of higher education today:

History tells us that no matter who rules the world, if they fail to adapt they die out. If the environment changes, it is a case of evolve or be replaced by newer, more nimble creatures that are more suited to the changing conditions.

The story is referring to Microsoft and Intel, but if those companies are at risk in this technology revolution, what does that mean for small retailers and educational institutions that struggle to understand technology or decide when or if they should jump in?

Are There Apps for Retailers?

The Chronicle of Higher Education’s ProfHacker blog recently posted a lengthy list of productivity applications recommended by some of its regular contributors and participants at the recent THATCamp-Southeast (The Humanities and Technology Camp). Some are free, some not. While several are geared more toward managing academic materials, most would come in handy for anybody interested in better organizing their documents and downloads.

Are any useful productivity tools out there that campus retailers should know about? Store buyers and managers, what computer and smartphone applications are you using to help run your businesses more efficiently and effectively? Share your favorites in the comments.

Phones Getting into Class, One Way or Another

During class, most college professors would prefer students refrained from even glancing at their phones. But some profs are beginning to find ways to incorporate smartphone apps into their instruction.

As this article in the Richmond Times-Dispatch describes, a faculty member at Virginia Commonwealth University has created phone apps for local walking tours that take students right to the scene of the history they’re studying—Edgar Allan Poe’s haunts and Civil War sites, among others. Another VCU prof was taken aback when his students continued discussions via Twitter for two months after the course concluded.

According to the article, a VCU survey discovered 43% of students used mobile devices, not computers, as their chief means of accessing the Internet. When they need to check something online, they do it right where they are from their phone—no waiting until they get back to the dorm to fire up their laptop.

Another tidbit from the VCU survey: Almost two-thirds of VCU’s first-year students own smartphones. That percentage will almost certainly be much higher with next fall’s new freshman class.

Mobile retailing blueprint

The National Retail Federation (NRF) has come out with version 2.0 of the Mobile Retailing Blueprint. This is a product of NRF's mobile retail initiative and was produced with input from a range of retailers, vendors, analysts and standards organizations. It details both opportunities for consumers and retailers and provides retailers with concrete examples and useful information for crafting a mobile commerce strategy.

The NRF's mobile retail initiative aims to serve as a "catalyst for mobile-inspired innovation that enhances the retail shopping experience and improves internal business processes." In addition to providing definitions and simple examples, the document provides a number of lessons learned and best practices from current adopters of mobile commerce technology.

With mobile commerce becoming more common in the higher education environment, and globally, retailers (particularly collegiate retailers) would be well advised to peruse the document or begin thinking about a mobile strategy for both commerce and content. With changes in the collegiate retailing environment, this could be viewed as "one more thing" on top of crafting social networking strategies, content strategies, device strategies, and other issues. Like those others it will be increasingly difficult to remain viable in the future without thinking about some of the associated challenges and begin formulating some strategy.

The NRF document is a good place to start. As we move through 2011 and into 2012, NACS and some of its subsidiaries (particularly NACS Media Solutions) will also begin to offer more education and information to help stores with the opportunities and challenges ahead.

Study finds children are more likely to own a mobile phone than a book

A recent survey by the National Literary Trust has produced some interesting findings. The survey included more than 17,000 children between the ages of seven and 16 and found that 85.5 percent of children had their own mobile phone while only 72.6 percent had their own books. The study also suggests that there is a link between access to books outside of school and high test scores. “Involvement with reading activities at home has significant positive influences not only on reading achievement, language comprehension and expressive language skills, but also on pupils’ interest in reading, attitudes towards reading and attentiveness in the classroom.”

In conjunction with the research, the National Literary Trust has launched a new campaign called Tell Me a Story to raise awareness in supporting children’s literacy.

IBM -- predictions of the future...

There is an interesting piece today on some of IBM's top predictions for emerging technologies. Real or science fiction? You decide. One of the interesting items on the list is #4: Our cell phones will be our wallet, ticket broker, concierge, bank, shopping buddy and more. We are already seeing some of this in the college store environment. Or consider the ability to take your iPhone into Starbucks, hear a song you like and have the device be able to tell what is playing and allow you to immediately purchase and download the tune while you wait for your latte to be served up. What will these advances in mobile commerce mean for college stores and our customers?

For the full article on IBM's predictions, see: http://www.tgdaily.com/content/view/35049/118/