Nearly half of holiday mobile shoppers are frustrated (survey)

Shopping at any time of year can be stressful, but around the holidays, it just becomes unbearable for many of us. Mobile devices have been touted as a medium to help streamline this process and make it more flexible, but it's still not enough for everyone.

According to a new survey from Tealeaf, which specializes in online and mobile customer experience management solutions, more than 40 percent of holiday shoppers using mobile devices are frustrated.

Using research conducted and analyzed in partnership with Crimson Hexagon, these findings are based upon the results that over 40 percent of online conversations about mobile shopping with the top 35 mobile retailers reflected customer frustration during the Thanksgiving weekend.

Thus, this could reveal a major disappointing trend in retail over the next few weeks. Tealeaf is likely correct in asserting that this reveals "missed opportunities for leading brands," but let's not forget that this was still one of the most successful Black Friday/Cyber Monday weekends ever.

Nevertheless, let's take a look at some of the problems that shouldn't be overlooked:

• 58 percent of the negative conversations about mobile shopping with the leading mobile retailers focused on "customer struggle issues" (i.e.payment as well as search-and-sort problems).
• 21 percent cited features that would have made the experience easier for them but weren't available.
• Only 17 percent found that the mobile apps and sites they utilized were easy to use.

Then again, it's not clear just how many shoppers are actually experiencing this new form of consumer pain. Survey results about just how many consumers will be actively using mobile devices while conducting holiday shopping in the next few weeks tend to vary, and we might not have an accurate picture until well after January 1.

For example, PayPal reported in September that at least 46 percent of consumers plan to make mobile purchases this holiday season.

But when focusing solely on Cyber Monday, PriceGrabber found that only as little as 4 percent of customers were planning to use mobile devices for shopping on November 28, which is a bit surprising considering that it supposed to be one of the biggest shopping days of the year.

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