• by Mark Walsh  @markfwal, August 12, 2013

When it comes to “mobile” shopping, there’s no place like home. That’s the key takeaway from new research by Nielsen showing two-thirds of smartphone shoppers, and four out of five on tablets shop at home -- sometimes while watching TV.

Furthermore, 95% of tablet shoppers -- and 72% of smartphone shoppers -- who make a purchase do so from home. Tablet users are more likely to purchase a physical item (38%) than smartphone shoppers (24%), and more likely to make purchases overall than smartphone counterparts. They are also more likely to research products before buying, at 59% versus 54% for smartphone users.

Data released by Nielsen last month indicated that 84% of U.S. smartphone owners used their devices for shopping in the first quarter -- up five percentage points from the year-earlier period. Mobile shoppers split evenly by gender, but tend to skew younger (57% under 45) and more affluent than the general population.

Smartphone shoppers, not surprisingly, are more active outside the home. On the way to a store, 70% of smartphone shoppers use a store locator, and 37% use shopping lists created on their phones once they arrive.

The majority of mobile shoppers typically check prices, often using product search or barcode-scanning apps. When checking out, smartphone shoppers are more likely to use their devices for mobile coupons (34%), and for payment (23%). But only 3% use their devices to make in-store purchases.

The mobile experience continues after returning home, as about 20% of phone and tablet owners post comments on social media. Among tablet users, 16% write reviews of their purchases, and 17% follow up by looking up information on a complementary product. Among those who are shopping from the couch, most smartphone and tablet (56% and 52%, respectively) owners said they use their devices to track the progress of their online orders.

The findings in Nielsen’s Mobile Shopping Report were taken from a sample of 3,257 adults who either own a tablet or a smartphone and have done some mobile shopping activity in the last 30 days.