Report highlights changes in consumer behavior

A new report from BI Intelligence highlights the changes in consumer behavior between those that use tablets and those that use smartphones. Behavior between these two demographics has been fragmenting for some time, with tablets users treating their devices more like traditional computers and smartphone users treating their devices like social media tools and portable gaming platforms. The differentiation between smartphone and tablet users has been modest, except in the retail sector where mobile consumers have become enamored with mobile commerce.

Tablets are favored shopping platforms

According to the report from BI Intelligence, consumers are beginning to favor tablets when it comes to mobile shopping. Many favor these devices because they provide a more enjoyable shopping experience. The larger screens of tablets allow consumers to better navigate retail sites and find the products they are interested in. The report also shows that tablets are becoming quite popular research tools for consumers that like to compare products.

Consumers spend more through tablets

Tablet users prefer to spend money at night, according to the report. Tablets allow for a shopping experience that is similar to what can be found on a traditional computer. This makes it easier for consumers to do their shopping from home, thus making them more comfortable with parting with their money. Smartphones are still quite popular when it comes to mobile commerce, but these devices are primarily used in physical stores rather than for home shopping.

Retailers work to engage tablet consumers more directly

Retailers are beginning to take note of the growing favor that consumers are showing for tablet devices. As such, the report notes that many retailers have begun tweaking their websites to be more accommodating the tablet users. Making a shopping experience more enjoyable specifically for tablet users may alienate smartphone users who still represent a significant portion of the mobile commerce market.

A new survey has revealed that a growing number of companies in the E.U. accept payments via smartphones.

A new report has recently been released by yStats.com, a secondary market research company based in Hamburg, Germany, which has suggested that European mobile payments is a growing trend in the continent.

The report also pointed out that more companies are accepting transactions online, boosting regular e-commerce.

The “Europe Online Payment Methods 2013 – Second Half 2013” report showed that the use of smartphones for European mobile payments is growing in use for making traditional retail purchases in the E.U. countries as well as in other regions around the world. The report pointed out that the transactions being completed by way of smartphones and tablets has been increasing its share of the overall digital space, and that it is expected to make its way into the double digits by the year 2020.

In 2010, European mobile payments represented only 1 percent of all online forms of transaction.

This will require an extremely rapid level of growth an adoption if it is to reach at least 10 percent of online transactions only a decade later. The reports data showed that this technology is making the biggest headway in Turkey, Spain, and the Netherlands, among countries located in Europe. This is particularly true in the use of smartphone banking. The highest traditional online banking – where it is above 80 percent, is in Norway, Finland, and the Netherlands.

There is extremely promising growth being seen in European mobile payments and traditional online transactions in the mature markets of the central part of the continent. For example, in Germany, PayPal and invoice were the two most popular forms of B2C E-Commerce transaction methods. Furthermore, the smartphone paying method is starting to take off quickly in areas that have implemented terminals for parking or ticketing, with 10 percent of consumers having tried those technologies at least one time in 2012.

The report predicted that in the Western sub-region of the continent, the transaction value of European mobile payments will be growing by half in 2013 when compared to the year before.