*

Gen Z loves the convenience of mobile shopping

*

Retailers helped drive the trend with easy-to-use apps

*

Adobe sees Nov-Dec mobile purchases jumping 12.8% YOY

By Arriana McLymore

NEW YORK, Nov 28 (Reuters) - U.S. holiday shoppers have

big plans to use small screens for a head start this year on

Thanksgiving Day, and retailers have spent weeks priming them,

touting pre-Black Friday online discounts for everything from

TVs and toys to Bluetooth speakers.

Major retailers including Walmart ( WMT ) and Target ( TGT )

close their brick-and-mortar stores on Thanksgiving Day,

reopening their doors on Black Friday. But tech-savvy 18- to

24-year-olds who may be with their families for Thanksgiving are

likely to make mobile purchases from their sofas.

Shoppers have been lured by the convenience of apps that

have made it much easier in recent years to make purchases from

retailers' websites using mobile devices.

"What we've always seen is this gap between shoppers

looking and browsing from their phones, but then they go back to

their computers and buy," said Caila Schwartz, director of

consumer insights at Salesforce ( CRM ). That gap is shrinking as

retailers streamline payment methods including Google Pay and

Apple Pay, store billing and shipping information for loyalty

members and tailor merchandise suggestions to users.

For the months of November and December, mobile spending is

set  to  hit a record $128.1 billion, up 12.8% from last year,

according to Adobe Analytics, which keeps track of the type of

devices that use Adobe's software to help power more than 1

trillion visits  to  U.S. retail sites.

Gen-Z consumers, who are comfortable shopping and comparing

prices on their mobile phones, are driving the shift toward

mobile spending, and are likely to influence their families to

do the same over Thanksgiving, noted Minkyung Kim, Assistant

Professor of Marketing at Carnegie Mellon University's Tepper

School of Business.

Mobile spending -- transactions made on a smartphone,

tablet or laptop -- is expected to account for 53% share of

online spending in November and December, totaling about $128.1

billion to surpass last year's record high expectation of $113

billion, Adobe said.

Thalia LeBlanc, 33, said "nine times out of 10" she is

shopping on Target ( TGT ) or Nordstrom's ( JWN ) retail apps from her phone or

iPad. LeBlanc plans to spend $2000 on gifts for her family

throughout the holiday season, with most of her purchases being

on Amazon's ( AMZN ) app.

Convenience is a significant factor for shoppers who want to

avoid long lines and crowded stores on Black Friday and

throughout the holiday season. In the first 24 days of November,

51.6% of online shopping happened on a mobile device, an

increase from 49.5% during the same time period last year,

according to Adobe Analytics.

U.S. shoppers spent $39.9 billion through their phones,

tablets and other mobile devices during that time, a 13.3%

year-over-year increase, Adobe Analytics said.

The ease of shopping from mobile apps is also enticing

shoppers to spend more money and make frequent purchases at

their favorite retailers.

LeBlanc said apps from retailers like Amazon ( AMZN ) and

Nordstrom ( JWN ) make it easier for her to shop and complete

other tasks, like paying off store-branded credits cards.

LeBlanc, a Dallas, Texas resident, said exclusive deals and

discounts also give her a reason to revisit the shopping apps.

Surf apparel brand Roxy said 60% of its web traffic is from

mobile devices and most purchases come from loyalty members.

"The average basket is higher on the app and the conversion

rate is also higher," said Nur Ghossien Martin, a retail

information technology director at Roxy's parent company

Boardriders. Roxy's average basket size on its app is 85 euros

(USD $89) compared to 80 euros (USD $83.80) on its mobile

website, according to Ghossien Martin.

She said in previous years, the company has launched deals

to get more shoppers to download the Roxy app during the

holiday.

Amazon ( AMZN ) is known as a leader in mobile shopping given the

capabilities of its online store. Ahead of the holidays, the

company expanded its generative AI chatbot Rufus and launched

Amazon Haul, its low-priced store set to compete with Shein's

and PDD Holdings ( PDD ) to sell $12 dresses and $10 toys. The catch:

shoppers can only access Amazon Haul through the e-commerce app.

Bringing that exclusivity of Amazon Haul to the app shows

there is more room for growth in encouraging consumers to shop

from their phones, said Melissa Minkow, global director of

retail strategy at consultancy CI&T. She said "habitual"

purchases on Amazon ( AMZN ) are likely to encourage more shopping on its

mobile app.

Even as Amazon ( AMZN ) lures mobile shoppers with cheap holiday

merchandise, Schwartz said Salesforce ( CRM ) is seeing "more high

ticket item buyers transacting on their phones" due to retailers

giving detailed product descriptions and better mobile apps and

websites.

Typically, retailers including Amazon ( AMZN ) and Mango will boost

capacity and stress-test their websites and apps in the weeks

leading up to the holiday season in preparation for an influx of

bargain-hungry shoppers.

The boost in online traffic makes it "even more imperative

for brands and retailers to invest in mobile-first technology,"

Schwartz said.