You know I’m always a firm believer that we the consumer’s change the way car buying will become. With the holidays coming up, well now pretty much here—- Holy crap I better start shopping LOL. Anyway, the way consumers shop when comes to holiday time always seems to set the precedence on how quickly a technology will evolve into the automotive space.  Traditionally it stores, then internet, internet still…., and now how they use the internet ex (social networks), and now mobile is hitting big this year and will explode next year.

Social media is gaining traction with 17 percent of consumers planning to use social media during their holiday shopping, and 60 percent plan to use it to find discounts, coupons and sales information, More than half (53%) plans to use social media to research gift ideas, while 52 percent plan to check the gift wish lists of friends and family.

Consumers in all age groups plan to embrace social media over the holidays. While more than half (52%) of those who expect to use social media during the shopping process are in the 18-29 years old age group, 33 percent are in the 30-44 years old age group and 12 percent are in the 45-60 years old age group.

“The mobile phone is another digital tool for the holidays that is on track to be used by 19 percent of consumers to help with their holiday shopping. Those consumers plan to find store locations (55%), research prices (45%), find product information (40%), get discounts and coupons (32%) and read reviews (31%). A quarter plan to make a holiday purchase with their phone.”

The Internet ranks as a top shopping destination and continues to see steady growth. Nearly a quarter (22%) of consumers indicate they will shop primarily online this year and many are using the Internet to find special offers, with 44 percent of shoppers expecting to use a coupon they get online.

Reviews have become another key online source of information, with 39 percent of consumers indicating they often read consumer-generated reviews of stores or products online, and one-quarter (25 percent) saying they will likely purchase a product this holiday season based on an online recommendation.   More than a third (34 percent) say that online consumer reviews and ratings influence their buying decisions more than advertising. Now how many times have you heard, about needing to check your online reputation? Those consumer reviews hold a lot of weight.

Just look at those trends, it’s not vapor. It’s not a fad anymore and if you’re not staying on top of it then you’re going to exhaust yourself trying to keep up with technology wave.

Yours Truly….