Majority of US Smartphone Owners Use Devices to Help them in Shopping

Bob Bentz    Internet Marketing, Mobile Marketing, Text Message Marketing     smartphone shopping behavior

According to a report by research firm Leo J. Shapiro and Associates, it was found that two-thirds of US consumers with smartphones have used their devices to help them in shopping. The February 2012 survey also found that 38% of the respondents explored products on their smartphones while shopping inside the store. Customers are using web-enabled devices for a variety of purposes, such as finding out more information about a product, comparing price etc. Customers are “pre-shopping” on smartphones before visiting to a retail location.

Once near the point of sale, more than one in 10 smartphone owners used their phones to compare prices at different stores or websites. This finding relates to growing concerns among retailers over the practice of “showrooming,” when customers research products in-store, but then purchase them elsewhere. Retailers can solve this problem by guaranteeing that the prices of products are steady across multiple channels—in stores, onmobile apps and on their websites.  That will give shoppers less motives to walk away from a purchase.

eMarketer estimates that there will be 115.8 million smartphone users in the US by the end of 2012, with that number growing to 176.3 million by 2015.

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