According to two recent studies conducted by Compete and Motorola, respectively, point to the clear trend of consumers utilizing their mobile phones for shopping-related activities.
Compete’s third-quarter “Smartphone Intelligence” survey found that 37 percent of smartphone users have purchased something non-mobile with their devices in the past six months, while 68 percent say they have looked up shipping information of an item they may purchase online and looked up the address or store hours of a shopping destination they would like to visit, respectively.
Though the survey found that smartphone owners are still repelled by poor mobile site functionality, the findings suggest “that mobile commerce (m-commerce) is ready to explode in 2010,” according to a company statement.
Additional findings include 52 percent of respondents saying they looked at product descriptions on their mobile handsets, while 45 percent looked at third-party or consumer reviews of a produce while in a store via their mobile devices.
Checking the status of an order made online (43 percent), looking for retailer or product coupons (43 percent) and checking to see if an item is available for pickup in a store (40 percent) were also popular shopping-related activities for smartphone owners in the U.S. during the third quarter of 2009.
Interestingly enough, Compete’s survey also found that Android users were more willing to spend larger amounts of money on purchases made through their mobile phones. Twenty-nine percent of these users said they were willing to spend $250.01 or more on m-commerce purchases, compared to 9 percent of Windows-based mobile device users, 18 percent of iPhone users, 7 percent of BlackBerry users and 9 percent of Palm users.
Motorola revealed its findings from its annual study of holiday shoppers earlier this week. In it, the company found that 51 percent of consumers in 11 countries used their mobile phones for in-store activities, “such as comparison shopping and getting peer feedback, product information and coupons.” This “signals the increasing importance for retailers to adopt mobile shopper technology strategies to remain competitive,” according to the company’s press release.
According to the study, 64 percent of those between the ages of 18 to 34 (Gen Y) used their mobile handsets to in-store shopping-related activities during the 2009 holiday season.
“By utilizing mobile technologies, consumers have become empowered, better informed and more critical shoppers,” said Frank Riso, senior director of retail solutions at Motorola Enterprise Mobility Solutions. “Retailers need to establish near-term strategies to provide product information, stock availability, discounts and coupons directly to shoppers to help them to remain competitive.”
The company also noted that 39 percent of shoppers were willing to abandon purchases if they couldn’t find coupons or discounts.
In North America, this number was 40 percent, with shoppers leaving an average of $109 unspent this past holiday season because of limited merchandise, lack of availability of coupons/discounts and inconsistent customer service.
Sources:
http://multivu.prnewswire.com/mnr/compete/41839/
http://www.emarketer.com/Article.aspx?R=1007457
http://mediacenter.motorola.com/content/detail.aspx?ReleaseID=12285&NewsAreaID=2
http://www.webpronews.com/topnews/2010/01/11/more-than-half-of-holidays-shoppers-relied-on-cell-phones
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