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â–¶ All the More Reason For a Mobile-Friendly Site: Smartphone owners are task-oriented, impatient and unforgiving of Web sites that do not provide a good mobile experience, says a study released in Sept. 2012 from Google. The survey of 1,088 adult smartphone users in the U.S. shows that two-thirds of consumers are more likely to buy products or services from a mobile-friendly site. Other findings include:
• 96% of respondents say they have encountered sites not designed for mobile users.
• 74% say that once they’ve visited a mobile-friendly site they would be more likely to return to it in the future.
• A majority (61%) says that, if they did not find what they were looking for on a mobile site “right away,” they would “quickly” move onto an alternative site.
• 52% say that a bad mobile experience made them less likely to engage with a company.
Source: Google
â–¶ Money Woes Beginning to Hurt Green Product Sales: Because of the lingering bad economy, the common assumption that U.S. consumers are willing to spend more on green products appears to be changing. GfK’s 2012 Green Gauge survey of 2,000 U.S. consumers indicates that the proportion of people willing to pay more for sustainable goods has fallen by 5-12 percentage points over 2011, depending on product category. Consumers are, however, willing to change their personal behavior to save energy. Study highlights include:
• Almost all respondents (93%) say they have adopted at least some energy-saving behaviors.
• Across categories, there is a consistent trend away from making green purchases. In 2008, 62% of the GfK survey respondents said were willing to pay more for a car that pollutes less, compared to 49% in 2012.
• In 2008, 70% said they would pay more for energy-efficient light bulbs, but this percentage drops to 60% in 2012.
• Organic foods, which account for the bulk of spending on eco-products, are seeing increased resistance from consumers to higher prices, with a fall from 57% to 51% in respondents prepared to pay for foods free of pesticides or antibiotics.
• Sales of environmentally friendly brands were worth $40 billion in the U.S. in 2011.PRN
Source: GfK