I am not a big online shopper for various reasons; I don’t like not trying on items before purchasing or the cost of shipping fees can get ridiculous. With the limited space that I have on my phone, I use apps for socializing and reading news articles. I most likely do not represent the majority of women in my age group or generation, but it seems that the rest of Canada agrees with me. A new study shows that Canadians prefer to use apps for socializing more than shopping. This may come as a daunting factor for many retail companies who are attempting to target Canadians during this upcoming holiday season.
The health and fitness trend seems to be dominating consumers’ mindsets, as year over year apps in this realm seem to have grown significantly (by 140% to be exact). This shift could be attributed to the increasing number of young people going digital and mainly utilizing social media apps on their smartphones. Canadian consumers are starting to solidify their core apps that they use on a daily basis and are being selective in the amount of real estate apps take up on their phones. A large motivation to do so would presumably be because of the short battery life, the smaller screen, and the large data usage scrolling on apps take up. For myself, I know that I am still locked into a 3 year phone plan, so I haven’t upgraded my phone for almost three years now. I don’t have enough storage on my phone to download new apps, let alone shop online. If this trend persists, companies will have to identify a different, creative method in connecting with Canadian consumers online.
