Commentary

Shopper Loyalty & the World of Mobile Commerce

Mobile shoppers continue to shop everywhere and all the time.

In a presentation on the everywhere shopper at the MediaPost Mobile Insider Summit yesterday, we saw yet another piece of evidence of all-the-time commerce.

Bill Romania, senior vice president, shopping and retail strategy at GfK, one of the world’s largest research firms, laid out some of the company’s research from its annual tracking study. It comprises research of shopper insights from 14 countries.

The majority (57%) of U.S shoppers say they are less loyal to any one retailer since they shop around more to find the best value, based on the FutureBuy 2013 study. In Brazil, Chile and Belgium, it’s even higher.

The study also found showrooming in the U.S. to be on the rise, with more than a third (37%) saying they saw a product in a store and then purchased on a phone elsewhere. This is up from 22% last year.

Even more interestingly, exactly a third of smartphone shoppers saw a product on a phone and purchased on a phone without a store visit, according to the study.

This is yet another indicator that mobile consumers are shopping all the time, no matter the location.

“It’s becoming a global phenomenon,” Romania told me after his presentation. “Shopping is happening all the time.”

The study also found that away from stores, such as at home, tablets play a significant role in the transaction phase of shopping, which we’ve seen consistently in numerous studies.

Purchases away from stores were more often done on tablets (42%) than smartphones (33%).

But out of store globally, smartphones also are used for finding products (44%), finding the best price (40%) and checking product reviews (38%).

While in stores, smartphones are used for finding products (28%), finding the best price (33%) and checking product reviews (24%).

The elements of shopper loyalty do seem a bit fluid in the current world of mobile commerce.

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