• by Chuck Martin , Staff Writer, September 17, 2013

The idea of how consumers use mobile devices to find things during the shopping process continues to be somewhat intriguing.

One recent study I recently wrote about (Luxury Shoppers ‘Find’ their Way to the Store) showed that most wealthy consumers are relatively tech savvy but eight to nine out of 10 of their most recent luxury purchases were done in physical store.

During that purchase cycle, however, mobile can play a significant role as the consumer winds their way through the Mobile Shopping Life Cycle.

The idea here is that shoppers are looking to find products based on where they are and what they may be doing at the time. In context, essentially. They use their mobile devices to research all along the way.

I just came across another new study that highlights net another shopping process, at least in a certain demographic.

The survey, conducted by Redshift Research for WeSee, found that three quarters (74%) of UK consumers consider traditional text-based search as inefficient in helping them find the right items online.

An in a new twist on showrooming, when shopping in a store, many (40%) consumers aged 18-34 have taken a mobile photo of a specific item to buy online when they get home.

The study found that many shoppers would like their shopping experience to be more image-based.

Three quarters of shoppers under 34 years old would like more visual technologies incorporated into their mobile shopping and almost half (45%) say they would like to be able to use their phone to take a photo of an item and be linked directly to a site by it.

The ultimate consumer behaviors around mobile shopping are still in the early stages.

The influence of mobile on shopping will be felt for a long time.