A recent study from The Nielsen Company about the utilization of technology in multicultural consumers reveals that Hispanics are savvy smartphone users. As far as retail concerns, Hispanics shop less often but spend more than other multicultural communities.
According to the report, Hispanics are very active on their smartphones, texting the most out of all races/ethnicities (943 texts per month) and employing a wide range of mobile activities, including mobile banking. Smartphone penetration has reached 45 percent, matching only Asian-American usage levels in popularity.
Among Hispanics, the site MySpace is the most popular. 54 percent are more likely to visit MySpace than the average user in USA, according to The Nielsen Company.
Hispanics are more likely to have a video and Internet enabled cell phone than the general market (44 percent vs. 35 percent). While Hispanics spend 20 percent less time online than non-Hispanics, they stream twice as much video online, accounting for almost 30 percent of their online activity. Nielsen’s 2010 Q4 mobile insights survey more than 50,000 people, of which 8,000 reveal that Hispanics are not only more likely to own a smartphone, but that they are also part of the most valuable mobile consumer segments. Hispanics carry an average monthly bill that is 14 percent higher than the market average. Hispanics also lead all ethnic groups with an average of 40 percent more calls made per day and are the most likely ethnic group to use text messaging, mobile Internet and e-mail. They are also more likely to download pictures or music on mobile devices.
The study also finds that Hispanics shop less often than other ethnicities, but spend more on each trip and annually. English-preferred Hispanics are more frequent shoppers in supercenters, mass merchandisers and drugstores, while Spanish-preferred Hispanics outpace English-preferred in trips to dollar stores, convenience/gas stations and warehouse clubs. Hispanic households spend disproportionately more than the U.S. average on staple ingredients such as dried vegetables and grains, shortening oil, flour and seasonings and spices. They also buy more men’s and women’s beauty products and baby-related items than the average U.S. consumer.
African-Americans shop more frequently than other ethnicities, but spend less on each trip and on an annual basis. Compared to other households, African-Americans make relatively fewer trips to major channels like grocery stores and supercenters, but are more frequent shoppers in smaller retailers like drug stores, dollar stores and convenience/gas channels.
