Remember when everyone in the tech industry sort of took a step back, looked at Pinterest, and said, whoa, this whole digital moms demographic might have some legs to it? Well, as it turns out, moms aren’t just out there pinning recipes and home decor to their Pinterest boards – they’re heavy-duty digital consumers across all channels, including not only social media, but also in e-commerce and on mobile.
According to the findings of a new report released today by mobile ad network Mojiva, moms are heavily engaged with their tablets and phones. One third own a connected device. They spend 6.1 hours per day on average on their smartphones – that’s more than magazines, TV or radio, to put it in perspective. 62% use shopping apps and 46% took action after seeing a mobile ads. This an active, active group of users to target here.
Mojiva wanted to find out how engaged today’s moms were on mobile, and, like most of the U.S. population, their time spent on mobile is increasing. There are 85 million mothers in the U.S. according to Census data, says the firm, and of those who are mobile, they’re spending 6.1 hours per day on their smartphones. That number seems a little high, but to be fair – it’s an average and the more addicted mobile users could be throwing things off a bit. (In fact, 51% say they’re “addicted” to their smartphone).
In addition, Mojiva found that mobile web usage is 40% higher today than in 2009 for these connected moms – but that’s also more likely because of the increased rollout of mobile websites and phones that can access them. More important are the engagement numbers below.
But first, a few demographic details: over 60% of the moms toting smartphones are aged 25 to 44 and over 77% are Caucasian, followed by Hispanic (12.4%), Black (11.5%), Asian/Pacific Islander (5.6%) and Native American (1.2%). Household income, not surprisingly, increases the likelihood that the moms are mobile, with those in households over $100K more likely than others to be smartphone owners. However, here’s something interesting – households with income of $25K-$50K have just about the same mobile penetration levels among moms as those with household income of $50K-$75K. In other words, mobile is just a fact of life for these middle-class mothers. 40% of the mobile demographic has a university degree or higher, 50% work full-time and 62% work.
The really interesting numbers here are the engagement levels. Even moms without smartphones spend 2.5 hours on average per day on mobile. One-third of moms own a connected device (a non-smartphone). Of these, 9.8% own an iPad, 9.5% own a Kindle and 5.7% own an iPod Touch. And they like to shop from their tablet, too. In surveying 1,500 tablet-owning moms, 97% made a purchase using their tablet in the last month. That’s huge. 31% log more than 10 hours per week on their tablet but log less than 2 hours on their PCs. This is also reflective of the overall trend in the industry that is seeing tablets eat away at PC market share (and quickly). Despite this, many retailers have been shown to be slow to adapt, and are without tablet-ready websites or iPad apps. That leaves room for new companies to come in and give iPad shopping startups a shot, like Pickie for example, or Fab.com., Gilt, Shopmox, etc.
Plus, 62% of connected moms report using a shopping app, and 46% say they want to receive info on their mobile device while in a store.
Also not surprising to those who watch trends in this group closely, moms are heavy social media users as well. Half of connected moms use social media on their mobile. 81% of these are fans of a brand, 86% post status updates, and 84% comment on social media. That also offers brands and retailers a lot of opportunity to connect with this group to encourage purchases and other types of engagement – like re-posting and sharing.
This is fascinating data – especially if you’re looking to capitalize on one of the most engaged demographics out there with your new startup, app or e-commerce venture. For more info, or to access the complete report which sources some of the above data from research firms like Nielsen, Edison, and others, contact Mojiva.