Verizon 2024 Report Highlights How Connectivity Shapes Consumer and Family Dynamics
Verizon’s latest report takes a close look at its products and services and how they impact consumers and families. In short, the impact is centered on connectivity.
In its 2024 Consumer Connections Report, researchers at the communication/tech company said this year’s report “reflects our commitment to understanding and supporting the ways technology shapes our relationships, empowers our families and enriches our daily experiences. It explores the interplay between digital and physical shopping experiences, and the growing reliance on home connectivity as people use more and more smart home devices.”
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Some of the top-line trends with families, Verizon said, is the increased use of Tumblr, Whisper and Snapchat as social media apps parents are most focused on. The report also found data usage to be growing, “with average monthly usage up 6 percent year-over-year per Verizon Home Internet household.” The research also found the average Verizon internet household has 18 connected devices.
Verizon products and services are also helping parents keep strong ties to their younger children via their Gizmo Watch, which Verizon said, introduces kids to wireless technology safely. The company said only parent-approved contacts can call or text a child’s watch — and the device can’t access any Internet content. Verizon said there were an average of 3.3 million calls to caregivers that were made monthly using the watch.
Looking at shopping trends, Verizon said today’s customer experience “happens wherever the customer wants — online, in person, on the phone or all of the above. You could call it ‘phygital.’ We call it the new reality.”
Underpinning that new reality is the increased use of mobile devices. Overall, Verizon found that 23 percent of customer purchases were done online in 2024, and most customers “who used in-store pickup initiated their order online,” the report noted. “That’s most but not all: 2024 saw a 5.5 percent increase over 2023 in customers who started the in-store pickup process with a phone call.”
The report also looked at sports usage and preferences as well as holiday and holiday-related travel. Regarding the latter, the report found that total mobility usage across airports studied in the U.S. over the winter holiday season came in at 17.7 million GBs with 106.8 million calls being made and 273.2 million call minutes. The report also found that video accounted for about 28 percent of consumer data usage at the airports studied.
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