Tag: mobile shopping app

Even though consumers continue to worry that their private data is not entirely safe, they’re still shopping on smartphones.

The Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) has released the result of a recent study and data analysis that has revealed that there is a growing number of people who are looking to mobile commerce as a part of their overall shopping process, regardless of the fact that worries about privacy remain high.

The research showed that 7 out of 10 people will use their smartphones for information while shopping.

While not all of those activities involve actually making a purchase, these mobile commerce behaviors remain quite important to the process that will eventually lead consumers to a purchase decision. For instance, the CEA found that about 70 percent of mobile device using shoppers will conduct an internet search using that smartphone in order to learn more information about a product while shopping.

Over half of shoppers were found to have preferred mobile commerce for learning about products while shopping.

That 58 percent said that looking something up on a smartphone or tablet was preferable to speaking to an employee while in store. This was particularly true among male shoppers as well as among those between the ages of 25 and 44.

The CES report also pointed out that even though consumers were using m-commerce tools despite the fact that about 61 percent of them also expressed concerns about privacy, and 58 percent were worried about security when using their smartphones while they shopped inside a brick and mortar store.

The CEA directory of industry and analysis, Steve Koenig, said that “Quick and reliable access to product information, availability and comparisons are the driving forces behind this trend.” He also added that “Mobile is undoubtedly changing the way consumers shop, but also likely redefining the role of salespeople at retail.”

The report, entitled “Managing the Consumerization of IT: Mobile Access for the BYOD World,” showed the following additional key mobile commerce usage findings:

• 70 percent of consumers use smartphones to find product information as they shop.
• 69 percent use their devices for a general search online while shopping.
• 52 percent would visit a website specific to the store while shopping.
• 47 percent would visit an app specific to the store while they shopped.
• 46 percent would visit a website specific to a manufacturer while shopping.

The credit card giant recently announced the beginning of a massive database for mapping available applications.

MasterCard unveiled its intentions at the World Retail Congress to begin a Europe-wide mobile app index that will map all of the shopping applications that are publicly available in Europe.

The name of this effort will be the Mobile Top App Index by MasterCard.

The purpose of this mobile app index will be to help to identify some of the best shopping applications that are available throughout the diverse European marketplaces. It is also meant to help to pinpoint some of the ways in which consumers in that part of the world are adopting and using their smartphone and tablet technologies as the shop while they are on the go. The top mobile commerce apps in Europe will be broken down into twenty different categories and are going to be announced next March at the Mobile World Congress.

The company hopes that its mobile app index will help to highlight some of the winning solutions out there.

According to the MasterCard Europe president, Javier Perez, it has never been easier to purchase products and services through the use of mobile devices, “as innovation goes hand in hand with growing consumer demand.” He went on to explain that “MasterCard is a technology company connecting banks, retailers and consumers. Our Mobile Top App Index will highlight the most outstanding solutions in the mobile shopping app arena for the benefit of European consumers and retailers.”

The ratings in the index will be applied to mobile commerce apps across thirty six different countries in Europe. This will be the result of the efforts of a dedicated team of experts from the company, in conjunction with Associate Professor (Reader) in Digital Innovation, Dr. Carsten Sørensen, from the London School of Economics and Political Science. Dr. Sørensen stated that the great diversity in m-commerce applications “fundamentally changes the way people think about their tasks.”

Dr. Sørensen also added that since shopping is among the activities that device users do quite regularly, this new index could potentially assist consumers in being able to find exactly the mobile app they require and it will become a driver for the industry as a whole.