• by Chuck Martin , Staff Writer, November 1, 2013

It’s no secret that mobile is becoming a significant influence at every stage of shopping.

Some interesting new research is pointing not only to some of the details of this growth but also the differences between shopping patterns by mobile and PC users.

Early in the Mobile Shopping Life Cycle, many (40%) mobile consumers in the market for a new product use their smartphones and/or tablets to research their purchases, according to findings by Millward Brown Digital.

Before leaving home, a majority (60%) of mobile consumers conduct research via mobile.

The company shared some of its early findings, which point to differences in how people shop based on device.

While most PC shopping is more heavily oriented around research and consideration, most mobile shopping activity is transactional in nature. Here are mobile shopping activities performed among mobile shoppers:

• 50% - Found store information
• 48% -- Compared prices
• 46% -- Made a purchase
• 44% -- Reviewed a product description
• 43% -- Checked the status of an order
• 39% -- Looked for coupons
• 32% -- Checked to see if an item is in stock at a specific store
• 31% -- Looked up shipping information

And if there was any doubt about if a retailer should focus on its mobile website, mobile shoppers were found to visit retail sites an average of six times a month, double the number of those who visit from PCs.

Of mobile consumers who visited a retailer site, many (38%) visit three or more retailers each month.

By category, compared to people shopping from PCs, mobile shoppers are more likely to consume tech, media, travel, leisure and lifestyle content, according to the research.

“Mobile consumers are much more promiscuous and less brand loyal,” Adam Guy, SVP of Business development at Millward Brown Digital told mCommerce Daily.

However, there also are similarities between PC and mobile shoppers based on touchpoints. About the same numbers of each rate search engines, retail sites and social sites as useful.

When it comes to what stops consumers from mobile shopping, most (60%) says it’s the size of the screen.

An interesting twist to the research is that Millward Brown Digital has been recruiting consumers to add real-time tracking data from software they agree to load onto their phone, which is already on thousands of phones, according to Guy.

The on-device metering can measure various activities, such as number of calls, texts, alarm times and locations, among other data points.

This approach ultimately could provide a more accurate picture of what mobile shoppers actually do in the course of the path to purchase since many can’t accurately recall later.

Measuring mobile on the path to purchase is getting better.