Marketing research and insights news and information. This issue's keywords: online shopping; digital consumer insights; loyalty programs; mobile shopping; logging into online accounts

The fourth-quarter 2015 Mobile Wallet Report by Nielsen, New York, shows that 37 percent of respondents said their purchases start with mobile shopping more than one-quarter to half of the time. The findings show that 72 percent of smartphone shoppers research an item before purchasing it, while 70 percent check the price of an item and 60 percent use a store locator to find a store where they can buy their desired product of choice. Additionally, the findings show that tablets are often used in mobile shopping, with 66 percent of tablet shoppers saying they researched an item before purchasing it, while 57 percent of tablet shoppers check the price of an item and 51 percent read a review of an item they purchased or plan to purchase. The report shows that the factors most important to consumers when they're shopping on mobile include the ability to see product pictures when shopping on a mobile phone (62 percent), mobile-friendly versions of the Web sites they visit via mobile (48 percent) and having the product descriptions (44 percent). The report also found that after purchasing, consumers' predominant shopper activity is tracking order progress (65 percent), followed by visiting a retailer site/app on their mobile device to browse and/or shop again (51 percent), while 33 percent of consumers say they use their smartphone to sign up for a rewards program after making a purchase on their smartphone.

Ninety-six percent of Americans are shopping online, spending an average of five hours per week making online purchases and allocating an average of 36 percent of their shopping budgets to e-commerce, according to a study examining the online shopping and purchase habits of the U.S. population by Austin, Texas, e-commerce platform BigCommerce conducted in partnership with Kelton Global. U.S. shoppers ranked online shopping ahead of smartphone GPS and streaming media as a basic essential they could not live without, according to the study. Additionally, 80 percent make online purchases at least once a month, while 30 percent make a purchase at least once a week. The findings show that nearly half (48 percent) of online shoppers have bought or spent more than planned when shopping online and 48 percent of online customer journeys begin at e-commerce marketplaces such as eBay or Amazon. In the last year, online shoppers have spent the most with e-commerce marketplaces ($488), followed by major online/offline brands ($409) such as Nordstrom or Best Buy. When identifying factors influential in determining where to shop online, 87 percent of respondents cited price as influential, followed by 80 percent citing shipping cost and speed as influential. Additional findings show that 67 percent of Millennials and 56 percent of Gen Xers prefer to search and purchase on e-commerce sites rather than in-store, while 41 percent of Baby Boomers and 28 percent of seniors prefer online to offline shopping.

In Hong Kong, digital consumer insights firm Toluna was selected by CNN International to run its CNN US Election Global View study. The study surveyed over 4,700 adults in 23 countries across Europe, the Middle East, Africa, Latin America and Asia-Pacific. Toluna's real-time survey and analytics platform was used to conduct the global study and provide real-time access to insight. The survey asked which international news provider is the leading source of news about the U.S. election and 51 percent of respondents selected CNN as No 1. - a figure higher than all other news organizations combined. Outside of news consumption habits, the study found interest among international audiences for the U.S. election. Eighty-five percent of people view the election as important for the world at large, with 73 percent of respondents saying they are personally interested in U.S. election news.

Eighty-one percent of consumers are more likely to continue doing business with brands that offer loyalty programs shows the sixth annual consumer loyalty report by Bond Brand Loyalty, a Canada-based brand loyalty agency. The report, which captured responses from U.S. and Canadian consumers, shows that consumers belong to an average of 13.4 loyalty programs, but are active in only 6.7 programs. The number of consumers who say they modify the brands/companies they purchase from in order to maximize points has increased to 67 percent, up from 64 percent in 2015 and 55 percent in 2014. Forty-four percent of program members say they are very satisfied with their loyalty programs and 39 percent of members feel that their program fits very well with what they expect from a brand. Seventy-three percent of members are more likely to recommend brands with good loyalty programs. The report also shows that Millennials are 2.2 times more willing than Boomers to pay a premium for products and services if they can also earn loyalty and reward points. Six out of 10 Millennials are comfortable receiving product recommendations based on their purchase history, compared to four out of 10 Boomers. The report also shows that 57 percent of members want to engage with programs on a mobile device, but nearly 50 percent of program members don't know if there is a mobile app to complement their loyalty program. Outside of a program app, consumers are most interested in using their mobile device to check their points balances (57 percent), redeem reward points (55 percent), find a location/store (54 percent) and browse reward options (54 percent).


Fifty-two percent of all respondents prefer to log into online accounts using modern authentication methods that are more secure than traditional usernames and passwords, including 29 percent that prefer using two-factor authentication and 20 percent that prefer biometric authentication according to a survey of consumers in the U.S. and the U.K. by Mountain View, Calif., customer identity management firm Gigya. Eighty percent of consumers who expressed a preference believe biometric authentication is more secure than traditional usernames and passwords. Additionally, the findings show that 16 percent of respondents follow password best practices with a unique password for each online account, while 6 percent use the same password for all accounts and 63 percent use seven or fewer passwords across all their online accounts. The survey also found that 26 percent of all respondents have had at least one online account compromised in the past 12 months. Thirty-three percent of Millennials create secure passwords for everything, according to the findings, while the rest use passwords like "password," "1234," their names or birthdays. In contrast, 42 percent of Gen Xers and 53 percent of Baby Boomers always create secure passwords. Sixty-eight percent of respondents said they abandon the creation of an online account due to complex password requirements, while 55 percent abandon a login page because they forgot their passwords or answered a security question incorrectly.