• by Jack Loechner , Staff Writer @mp_research, February 4, 2010

According to the recently released ChoiceStream 2009 Personalization Survey, 65% of m-commerce shoppers indicate that they would buy more products from their mobile devices if it were easier to find products on them from trusted retailers. Alternatively, consumers are not as interested in shopping when engaged with social networks. The survey also finds the placement, or location, of product recommendations within an e-commerce site to be a key determinant of whether or not consumers make a purchase, with product detail pages emerging as the clear winner in terms of sales conversion.

More Likely To Buy If Mobile Device Made Trusted Retailers Easier to Find
Response	% of Respondents
Agree	65%
Neither agree nor disagree	18
Disagree	18
Source: ChoiceStream, January 2010

Lori Trahan, vice president of marketing at ChoiceStream, says "... smartphones are here to stay and consumers are starting to see them as a legitimate shopping channel, with 37% of users reporting that they used their device to buy merchandise in 2009... (now) retailers (should) optimize ads and applications for those devices to overcome the challenges posed by small screens... "

The survey found that while m-commerce is a hot spot for recommendations in 2010, social networking is not. Of the respondents who belong to a social networking site, only 8.5% report that they have ever made a purchase while on the site. And, only 27% indicate any interest in product recommendations from trusted retailers (on a social networking site).

Levels of interest in product recommendations vary not only by channel, but by the placement, or location, of recommendations within retail sites as well. For example, the survey finds that 85% of shoppers would find it useful to receive product recommendations on product detail, brand and category pages, while less than half of respondents are interested in receiving product recommendations on an order confirmation page.

The majority of active online shoppers (those who spent more than $500 online in the past 6 months) indicate that they have bought something based on a retailer's online product recommendation, but only 16% claim to have purchased based on a recommendation in a shopping-related email (e.g., shipping confirmation). The majority of purchases were based on recommendations that appeared on product detail pages or category/brand pages.

Location of Recommendations That Prompted Purchase
Information Source	% of Respondents
Product detail	58%
Category/Brand	40
Cart	30
Promotional eMail	23
Order confirmation	23
Home page	21
Transaction eMail	16
Source: ChoiceStream, January 2010

Steve Johnson, founder and CEO of ChoiceStream, observes that "Today's shoppers are so much smarter than they were just a year or two ago... (and are) relying on product recommendations to make purchase decisions (with) clear preferences for where and when they want to see them... "

For more information from ChoiceStream, please visit here.