Have you ever wondered
whether mobile shopping behaviors will end up split in some way or if spending patterns ultimately will resemble traditional retail spending patterns?
While some early research shows that
people are using mobile devices to shop, in various forms, there may be a divergence in behavioral spending, adding to other differing mobile actions and habits.
There already is somewhat of a
difference in certain mobile behaviors. For example:
- Some people scan barcode and price match in stores, others don’t.
- Some use mobile payments like PayPal and Square,
others don’t.
- Some use check-in apps like Foursquare, others don’t.
- Some use airline travel apps, others don’t.
When we wrote in this space
yesterday about how much people spend using smartphones and
tablets, it raised the question of who is actually doing the spending.
One reader (thank you, Kevin) observed: “Until someone shows me different, here's how I interpret this (and
dozens of prior studies like it): people who can afford smartphones and tablets have more discretionary income than those who are "stuck" with laptops...therefore they spend more…”
Now along comes a new piece of research somewhat in support of this view.
According to a study by Unity Marketing, more than half of affluent shoppers are using mobile for shopping research
and nearly 40% use their mobile device to purchase.
This does not say that most people with smartphones and tablets are affluent, but that those who are affluent are using smartphones and
tablets for commerce. (The frequency of purchase was not addressed.)
The market is still somewhat split, with smartphone-feature phone penetration at 55% to 45%, with smartphone
percentages projected to continually increase.
When a large majority of consumers have smartphones, do you see mobile shopping behaviors becoming a mirror of online and retail today or
something different?
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Save the date dept: The MediaPost mCommerce Summit is coming: June 16-19, in Kohler, WI. The agenda.