The American Time Use Study, conducted by the U.S. Census Bureau, documents how consumers spend time by calling them up and asking about their activities from the previous day. While that may have been a good strategy in 2003, the landscape has changed drastically in the intervening 20 years. The ubiquity of connected devices and apps means that asking about one action at a time could mislead if the goal is to really understand how consumers spend their time.
PYMNTS’ data reveals that to be the case.
While 64% of consumers who worked in the last 30 days used a connected device to perform work-related tasks, they also used connected devices to multitask. PYMNTS research finds that U.S. consumers spend approximately one-quarter of their time multitasking, or using a connected device to perform a task unrelated to the primary task at hand. This share is similar across activities. Of the time consumers spent eating, they spent 28% of that time multitasking via a connected device. Consumers spent 24% of their work hours performing unrelated activities via a connected device.
Moreover, consumers want to multitask. Our research identified more than 10 connected buying experiences that many respondents want, illustrating a desired future in which consumers spend much less time searching for product pages and visiting stores to view items — and thus have more time to multitask further.
This edition of the “How We Will Pay” series explores how connected devices have bred a growing population of multitaskers. For the “How Connected Devices Enable Multitasking Among Digital-First Consumers” edition, PYMNTS surveyed 4,649 U.S. consumers between July 9 and July 14 to learn how digital-first consumers are using connected devices and apps to carry out multiple tasks — from shopping to entertainment — at work and at home.
With access to ever-evolving connected devices, today’s consumer can use time like never before.
Consumers are very connected in today’s world, with access to a variety of multitasking devices. While the average consumer owns six connected devices, this number varies across groups of consumers. Millennials, bridge millennials and those earning more than $100,000 tend to be the most connected. Bridge millennials and millennials are the most connected generations, owning seven devices on average. The number of devices owned also rises with income, with high-income consumers owning seven devices and the low-income group owning four.
Changes in device ownership over time reflect the increasing capabilities of smartphones and smartwatches. The number of devices consumers use is relatively stable from 2019 to 2023, but the kind of devices they own has changed. Our data finds that 85% of consumers own a smartphone, with baby boomers and seniors more likely to own computers than a smartphone.
Smartwatches have increased in popularity among millennials and bridge millennials, replacing voice-controlled assistants as the sixth most likely device they own. Smartwatch ownership distinguishes the most connected consumer. More consumers now own smartwatches, at 33% of the population, than in 2020 or 2019, when 23% and 19%, respectively, owned one. We also see increasing ownership of smart home devices. Today, 9% of consumers have smart refrigerators, compared to 5% in 2019. Ownership of connected thermostats is also up, with 15% of consumers owning one now compared to 10% in 2019.
The connected consumer is a multitasking consumer, with younger consumers, in particular, embracing multitasking.
Consumers are very connected while performing day-to-day activities, regardless of whether they do so on a weekday or a weekend. For example, 52% say they used connected devices while eating breakfast yesterday, 68% use connected devices while commuting and 67% use connected devices while caring for someone. Our study finds that consumers are multitasking for 26% of their day.
Multitasking also shapes how consumers work, with 85% reporting they used connected devices while working in the last 30 days. We found that 38% of consumers who worked used a device for leisure or entertainment while working, while 27% of consumers used the device to purchase grocery or retail products. Sixty-four percent of consumers who worked in last month used a connected device to perform work-related tasks. Consumers are also likely to report using connected devices in the last 30 days while engaged in leisure activities, at 76%. Just as some workers used connected devices for leisure, the street goes both ways, as 15% of consumers checked in on work via a connected device while engaged in leisure activities.
PYMNTS’ research also finds that Gen Z spends more time multitasking at work than older generations. While 22% of Gen Z use connected devices to perform work-related tasks on the weekend, 24% do so during the week. Among Gen Zers, the share of time spent multitasking at work varies the least: they multitask 28% of the time on weekends and during the week. In contrast, baby boomers and seniors spend just 11% of their work time multitasking. Listening to music and browsing social media consumes most of Gen Z’s time, at 10% on the weekend and 7.2% during the week. This group is also significantly more likely to shop at work during the week, with 5.6% doing so, than on the weekend, when 3.4% do so. These differences suggest that the pandemic has shaped the work habits of Gen Z more than others. The fact that there has never been a time when they have not owned connected devices may help explain why they fluidly intermingle work and life activities.
Using connected devices to multitask especially impacts consumers whose time is divided. For instance, 80% of consumers used connected devices in the last 30 days while caring for others. Connected devices allow these caregivers to perform other activities, with 30% purchasing food and retail products, 24% checking in on work, 22% completing household chores and 41% using connected devices in the last 30 days for leisure or entertainment while taking care of others.
Consumers are interested in connected buying experiences, especially those that help them multitask.
PYMNTS’ research finds that multitasking consumers are interested in a wide range of connected buying experiences, some of which they use today and others that they would use if available. For instance, 41% of consumers would be interested in the ability to take photos of something they see with their smartphone and be automatically taken to the product page to buy it, while 38% show interest in virtual shopping technology that shows how a purchase looks on them or in their home before they make the purchase.
Moreover, many of these experiences allow consumers to multitask. For example, 34% of consumers would like their smartphone to recognize they are commuting to work and direct them to pick up coffee on the way. If you say yes, your device will automatically order and pay for your regular coffee order, scheduled for pickup at the most convenient coffee shop.
One-third of consumers also show interest in buying experiences that integrate shopping and entertainment. For example, when watching a favorite livestreamed series on a mobile device, they may want to purchase a clothing or jewelry item worn by an actor on the screen and have the ability to touch the screen to go to the product page and purchase the item. Such internet-connected buying experiences have even further potential to take multitasking to a new level with the help of artificial intelligence (AI) and other advanced technologies that can update and maintain the data required to power these features and supercharge personalization.
These concepts are also far more than hypotheticals, as 7.7% of consumers already use apps such as Google Lens to turn smartphone pictures into product purchasing URLs. Add in the share who want this capability but do not currently use the feature, and it becomes clear that nearly half of consumers want this connected shopping multitasking experience. Between one-third and half of consumer respondents exhibited this level of strong interest for another 10 experiences, including those previewing how purchases will fit among existing wardrobe or décor, those skipping checkout lines for more efficient purchasing patterns and those utilizing where consumers are and what they are experiencing to minimize purchasing frictions.
To put it simply, consumers want to be able to simply want an item — whether seen in real life, on a show or in an ad or product recommendation — project whether the item fits with their current lifestyle and effortlessly purchase it without a long searching process or shopping trip that takes them out of their home or workplace. The strong interest across the board suggests that this may catch on sooner than some may expect.
Multitasking means consumers control where they accomplish what they need to accomplish.
With connected devices, consumers can shop and work from anywhere. The digital shift in working from home and grocery shopping introduced during the pandemic is durable due to connected devices. For instance, pre-pandemic, just 14% of consumers worked from home; this share increased to 38% during the pandemic and now hovers at roughly 20%.
Similarly, during the early peak of the pandemic, consumers shopped for groceries less often, with 57% reporting doing so in the last 24 hours before being surveyed in 2020 and 17% in 2019. Additionally, many more consumers shopped online for groceries at home, climbing to 30% in 2020 even though it sat at 9% in 2019. In 2023, 19% of consumers are still shopping for groceries online at home, indicating that the increasing ease and convenience of shopping online for essentials remains sticky, even as many once again shop in-store. The trend is similar for non-grocery shopping: 18% of consumers shopped at home for retail items in 2019, 38% did so in 2020 and the current share has settled between the two extremes, as 29% of consumers still shop at home for retail products.
The rise of remote work in recent years has changed the work-life paradigm and begs further investigation. Our data finds that consumers who work from home are as likely to use connected devices to perform tasks related to work on the weekend than on weekdays, at 36% and 39%, respectively. Consumers who work from home are at bit more likely to multitask during the weekdays, at 22%, than on the weekends, at 17%.
Perhaps in an effort to claw back some of this time for fun, leisure activities such as listening to music and browsing social media consume the most time when multitasking: 6.7% during the weekend versus 5.3% during the week for those who work at home. On the weekend, consumers who work from home spend 3.1% of their time shopping for grocery or retail products on connected devices, nearly double the 1.8% they spend while working during the week. These differences indicate that consumers who work from home intermingle work and life activities more often than not.
Conclusion
With the ubiquity of connected devices — smartphones and smartwatches, in particular — consumers readily have more tools that streamline everyday activities such as grocery and retail shopping. More than one-third either already use or would use more than 10 advanced internet-connected buying experiences if they were available.
Consumers also have more distractions in the form of social media and entertainment, which can take up time even during work hours. The lines are so blurred that there seems to be little difference overall in how they spend their time during the week and on the weekends, though the trend seems more pronounced among consumers who take care of others, those who work from home and Gen Z consumers who are newest to working.
As advanced AI technologies become mainstream and efficiency becomes more and more tied to connected devices, these multitasking habits will likely continue to grow — and asking about primary activities to understand how U.S. consumers spend their time will likewise prove more and more outdated.
Methodology
“How Connected Devices Enable Multitasking Among Digital-First Consumers,” produced independently by PYMNTS, examines how connected devices have bred a growing population of multitaskers. We surveyed 4,649 U.S. consumers between July 9 and June 14 to learn how digital-first consumers are using connected devices and apps to carry out multiple tasks — from shopping to entertainment — at work and at home. The sample was balanced to match the U.S. adult population in a set of key demographic variables. Our respondents’ average age was 47.5 years old, 51% identified as female and 38% annually earned more than $100,000.
