Millennials are driving a new era of demand for digital performance excellence, with 81 percent of smartphone or tablet owners in this age group saying they will abandon transactions and shop elsewhere if a mobile site or mobile app is buggy, slow or prone to crashes, a new survey finds.
According to Dynatrace’s survey of consumers, more than half (51 percent) are likely to broadcast their complaints about poor online shopping experiences on social media.
More than one in every four smartphone/tablet users (27 percent) and nearly four of every 10 millennial smartphone and/or tablet users (37 percent) said they will use their devices to make purchases when they are in stores shopping for gifts.
“Many might be surprised at how quickly in-store shopping is becoming digital shopping, too,” Erwan Paccard, director of solution marketing at Dynatrace, told eWEEK. “Millennials are showing us the future—nearly four of every 10 will be using their mobile devices to make purchases, even when they are in store aisles, and more than six of every 10 will be actively using their smartphones and tablets inside brick-and-mortar stores as part of their shopping journeys.”
In addition, 62 percent of millennial smartphone/tablet users will use their smartphones and/or tablets when they are in physical stores shopping for gifts to compare prices, read product reviews and download coupons.
Millennial smartphone/tablet users in the United States are leading the way in this area, with 71 percent going into stores with their devices on and ready to compare prices, read product reviews and download coupons when shopping for gifts.
The survey also revealed that 54 percent of millennial smartphone and tablet users prefer to use company-specific mobile applications downloaded from an app store rather than company Websites when shopping on smartphones or tablets, and 62 percent of millennial smartphone and tablet users say that company-specific mobile applications have better user experience and performance than a company Website.
More than two-thirds (68 percent) of smartphone/tablet users say they would try a mobile site or app one more time if it did not work the first time—an immediate loss of 32 percent of shoppers.
Around half (49 percent) of millennial smartphone/tablet users and 47 percent of all adults using smartphones and/or tablets say they would shop elsewhere if a mobile site or app fails to load in 3 seconds or less.
“Millennials are mobile, and they rely on their always-on connections to the world for virtually everything, including shopping,” Paccard said. “Half will do more holiday shopping on their devices this year than in stores. This is both a challenge and an opportunity for retailers, and a trend that will only become more pervasive in the months and years ahead.”