Survey: Younger Shoppers Increasingly Using Mobiles To Buy And Compare
The rising star of mulitchannel retail is mobile, according to a survey of U.S. and U.K. consumers conducted by a digital marketing group Econsultancy. It’s not a particularly surprising finding — given the capabilities and pervasiveness of today’s smartphones — but the findings underline the expanding role mobiles are playing in shoppers’ lives.
While the proportion of consumers actually using a mobile to make a purchase remains a minority — just 28% of U.S. and 25% of U.K. respondents said they have done so in the 2012 survey — this group of m-payers is growing rapidly, having doubled since the 2011 survey when the proportions were 12% and 13% respectively.
It’s also a group dominated by younger shoppers. Breaking this year’s result down by age, the survey shows that approaching half of 18-34 year olds have used their phone to buy something — a much larger proportion that the roughly a quarter of 35-54 year olds who said they have done so.
A clear thread running through the research is that younger shoppers are more likely to involve their mobiles in their next purchase.
When polled on whether they have used a mobile to compare prices and look at product reviews while out shopping, the 18-34 age group again emerges as a clear leader — with a majority (61% of U.S. shoppers, 51% of U.K.) having used their phone in this way. Only a minority of shoppers in older age group brackets said they had done so.
The survey also shows a clear preference for channel choice among younger shoppers — when asked how important it is to them to be able to buy from a retailer via different outlets, such as in store, by mobile and online, the 18-34 age-group emerges as the clear leader again.
Another interesting finding is that mobile websites are the preferred retail vehicle for shoppers vs apps — with the vast majority of U.S. and U.K. shoppers preferring to use websites, and only around a third preferring apps.
This app gap could have several explanations — such as the prevalence of retail mobile sites vs retail apps; the need for retailers to develop multiple apps to serve different mobile OSes; and the challenges of app discoverability vs the relative simplicity of online search.
The online survey polled around 1,000 respondents apiece in the U.S. and the U.K., and was conducted between July and August 2012.
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