Black Friday is on its way and while the hectic store floors remain the same, one way this year will be different is in the number of people using mobile as a shopping companion, according to a report from Mindshare.

Fifty-eight percent of shoppers who took a survey created by Mindshare will use their mobile devices to make purchasing decisions, in-store and out. Demographically, men are more likely to use their phones in this way than women.

“Interestingly enough, the research shows that Black Friday and Cyber Monday may be a bigger deal for men versus women, and for millennial shoppers as compared to other age groups,” says Joe Migliozzi, managing director and global head of Shop+ for Mindshare. “There’s no one silver media bullet for reaching those groups—but ultimately, you start by grounding your commerce strategies in audience data and insights and building off of that.”

Black Friday
The holiday season is the biggest shopping season of the year. For brands, that means they need to go all out if they want to capture as many purchases as possible from the consumers who will be out in droves.

Black Friday routinely proves one of the most profitable and important days in the holiday season for brands and if brands want to capitalize, they need to understand both the demographics of Black Friday shopping and the shopping habits of the consumers who will take advantage of the flurry of deals.

To figure this out, Mindshare posed a survey to 779 shoppers, asking them about their demographic makeup, what they planned to shop for this holiday season, specifically on Black Friday, and how they were going to go about doing it.

What they found was that a significant number of consumers are going to be using mobile as an integral part of their shopping process, mainly as a tool for comparing prices and finding deals while shopping in-store.

Of the 58 percent of consumers who will use mobile, the numbers skew slightly more towards men. Sixty-six percent of men will use their mobile devices in-store while 49 percent of women will do the same.

Another 40 percent of consumers will use mobile as their primary source for finding deals on Black Friday. This statistic includes both mobile devices and tablets.

Mobile shopping
The report also found that 57 percent of millennials post about Black Friday deals on social media before they make them. Men are almost twice as likely as women to post about those deals.

Men are also twice as likely as women to share their purchases on social media after they are made. Marketers and brands could leverage this knowledge to look into the possibility of user-generate content related to Black Friday purchases to drive engagement and interest in their products.

Most importantly, 50 percent of consumers say they want a way to check on what deals will be available in-store before they go in to visit.

This is an important desire for brands to satisfy, as consumers who feel discouraged by the lack of knowledge of what will be available may not come in at all, leaving the brands without a reliable stream of consumers to purchase their products.

Some brands have already begun to solve this problem by offering a sneak peek at their Black Friday deals to consumers who use the brand’s mobile app. Walmart is just one example of the brands who have hopped onto this trend (see story).

If brands want to make the most of the biggest shopping season of the year, making smart use of available data will be key to success.

“The right media plan will leverage those not just from the start, but with adaptive strategies throughout the holidays,” Mr. Migliozzi said.