MANILA — In the Philippines, the Christmas season starts as early as September, the start of the “-ber months”. This is why businesses also start gearing up for the holiday shopping season just as early. Facebook gave their insights on the mobile-first shopper and how Filipino businesses can reach them on Facebook even earlier on July 26, 2017.
In a press briefing, Kenneth Bishop, Managing Director for Facebook Southeast Asia gave statistics and trends on emerging Filipino online shopping behaviour.
Mobile and multi-screening
With increasing smartphone and internet penetration, Filipinos spend more time browsing on mobile and viewing content multi-screen. According to Facebook’s data, Filipinos spend 2.9 hours on smartphones, 1.4 hours on TV, 1.15 hours on radio, and 0.47 hours on newspapers. Today, 70% of Filipinos on Facebook multi-screen while watching TV, and 1 in 3 minutes watching TV is spent on Facebook.
Because of this behaviour, Facebook recommended pairing digital with TV campaigns to drive ROI and attributing campaign success to the right touchpoints.
Mobile is the holiday shopping cart, screen shopping is the new window shopping
Majority of Filipino shoppers on Facebook at 60% are millennials, paving the way to to a mobile-first future. Furthermore, 3 in 5 Filipino shoppers use mobile to shop during the holiday season. Where window-shopping used to be the norm, screen-shopping now has become the behavior for Filipino shoppers. Buyers now turn to their smartphones to discover what presents to get for their friends and family. According to Facebook, 2 in 3 Filipinos use Facebook to get inspiration for gift ideas with 91% saying it has influenced their holiday shopping.
To maximize this trend, brands and businesses should speak the language of mobile and pair in-store sales with an eCommerce strategy.
In stores, mobile complements the shopping experience
According to Facebook’s research, 1 in 2 Filipino shoppers use smartphones when shopping in-store during the holiday season to compare prices, compare products, read product reviews, take photos, and review their shopping list. Around 53% shoppers said that using their smartphone while shopping has allowed them to make more informed purchase decisions. For 42% of those who use mobile prefer it for the convenience online shopping brings over going to a store during the busiest time of the year.
Facebook then recommended using mobile to create convenience with in-store shopping and driving shoppers in-store with mobile.
Christmas is not the shopping finish line
For Filipinos, holiday shopping does not stop at the holiday season. A considerable number of shoppers at 42% still shop past the holiday season and still into the month of January.
This is why Facebook recommended for brands and businesses to capitalising on this opportunity to bring shoppers back to stores after the holiday season and cross-selling into the New Year.
“Mobile is influencing the shopping behaviour of Filipino consumers during the busy holiday season where people are discovering brands and products. We are committed to helping businesses win consumers during the holiday season by connecting them with the more than 63 million mobile-first Filipinos on Facebook,” said Bishop.
