We’ve got a short but sweet roundup to ease you into the new year, including news about online returns, mobile gaming, and Gen Z viewing habits.
Don’t forget to check out the Internet Statistics Database for more.
UK footfall drops 4% during post-Christmas sales
The Christmas sales failed to ignite interest from UK shoppers this year, as footfall to the UK’s high streets during 26th December to 1st January in comparison to the same time in 2018.
According to data from Springboard, footfall dropped on all but one day during this period. It rose across all destinations by 11.1% on December 30th, however this was likely down to the fact that it was a Monday (rather than a Sunday in 2018), which allowed for longer trading hours.
Despite the overall drop in footfall, Boxing Day fared better this year than in 2018. The 17th saw a drop of 2.3%, compared to a fall of 8.6% the year before.
84% of customers consider a company’s ethics before making a purchase
More than eight in ten consumers consider business ethics and values before they make a purchase, from TollFreeForwarding.com has revealed.
In a survey of 2,000 US consumers – which questioned respondents on how businesses can secure their loyalty as the new decade begins – environmental responsibility (45%), supporting worker’s rights (44%), and ending animal testing (44%) were cited as the three most important ethical issues.
A staggering 84% of consumers said they consider a company’s ethics and values before making a purchase, with 48% also saying they consider it to be of equal importance to the price of their products. Forty one percent of consumers revealed they have previously boycotted a company whose ethics or values that they didn’t agree with.
Finally, when viewing advertising on a variety of platforms, digital formats were viewed as more untrustworthy than physical formats. 38% consider advertising via email to be untrustworthy, while 35% say the same about ahead of social media. Traditional platforms such as TV (27%), radio (24%), and physical newspaper (22%) secured the most trust.
Gen Z sports fans have a longer attention span than marketers assume
A new report by Nielsen has busted a few myths relating to Generation Z sports fans and their attention spans, loyalty, and content consumption.
Based on Nielsen Fan Insights from China, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Spain, the UK and US, it found that Generation Z doesn’t collectively have a short attention span. Despite the popularity of short-form content, young people are also willing to binge-watch if the content is of a high quality. According to a survey of gaming video content viewers, 29% of the respondents under age 25 said they watched continuously for one to two hours, and 14% watched three to four hours at a time.
Another myth is that Generation Z prefer streaming sports, however, Nielsen also found that television remains the leading form of sports information regardless of age, with 64.9% of Gen Z say they use TV for this.
Interestingly, the report also notes that individual athletes are a much bigger draw for Gen Z than teams or leagues. One example of this phenomenon is Cristiano Ronaldo, who has three times as many social media followers on Instagram and Twitter as his team Juventus, and league Serie A, combined. Another is basketball player LeBron James, who has three times as many followers on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram as his current team, the Los Angeles Lakers.
Mobile gaming generated 60% of global video games revenue in 2019
New statistics released by GoldenCasinoNews state that the global video games market generated $83 billion income in 2019, and is predicted to reach $95.3 billion by 2024.
Mobile gaming accounted for 60% (or $49 billion) of the $83 billion generated last year, while online gaming was the second largest market with $16.9 billion profit. Download games was the third most lucrative market with $15.1 billion in income.
In terms of where the most gaming revenue was generated, China was first with a reported $18 billion profit, while the US was the second-largest mobile gaming market in the world with $9.9 billion in revenue. Japan ranked third with $6.5 billion income, followed by South Korea, and the UK as other leading markets.
52% of consumers have abandoned an online purchase out of fear of a difficult return process
A new survey by Splitit has highlighted how a poor returns policy can affect web conversion as well as a retailer’s bottom line. The survey (of 500 US consumers) found that 60% of respondents have returned an online purchase, with 38% having returned up to 10% of all online purchases they have made.
Twelve percent of respondents said they have returned a purchase within the past month, 11% within the last six months, and 18% within the last year. What’s more, 48% of respondents said they have purchased multiple variations of an item with the intention of returning one or more items.
Finally, the survey found that 52% of consumers have abandoned an online purchase out of fear of a difficult return process, with this number increasing to 67% for respondents aged 25 to 34.