Author: Lucy

While the internet has already greatly changed the way that people meet, smartphones have taken that to a new level.

When it comes to the dating scene in the United States, smartphones and mobile apps are starting to play an increasingly important role, as these applications help to make the process convenient in busy lifestyles.

The primary feature that these applications seem to have to offer consumers is convenience.

While they don’t appear to be any more successful – so far – than any other types of online dating services, the fact that they are convenient appears to be making them highly appealing to consumers is that they can be quickly and easily accessed over a mobile device instead of having to use a website on a computer.

These mobile apps don’t yet seem to have all of the details hammered out quite yet.

While consumers don’t seem to be completely satisfied with the experience, quite yet, the number of users of these applications is rapidly increasing. This is likely due to the effect of word of mouth, and the increasing reliance that many people have on their mobile devices for their day to day activities. Moreover, these apps can give people the chance to discover new people in real time, based on their actual location.

Daters can use apps to post their pictures and view those of other people who are located nearby. If they happen to spot someone they find attractive, they can swipe the picture and indicate that they are interested. If the owner of the picture reciprocates the swipe, the app allows them to contact each other so that they can arrange to meet.

Data from the Pew Research Center has shown that approximately 3 percent of Americans have tried the online dating experience with traditional websites. Aaron Smith, from that organization, pointed out that when it comes to dating apps, those who are using them are typically “quite young, primarily people in their mid-20s or 30s” and very tied to their smartphones.”

These mobile apps have now been around for a while and offer a broad range of different features and opportunities, including integration with social media.

In the United Kingdom, the average 2013 spent over mobile commerce was £199.

Different mcommerce trends have become quite commonplace in the United Kingdom with four out of every ten smartphone owners having made a direct purchase through their smartphones and one in six have said that they have taken part in showrooming.

Among shoppers in the United Kingdom, 55 percent have used their mobile devices in store.

While in store, mcommerce activity often consisted of price comparisons, online. This was the case among 54 percent of the people who used their mobile devices while in brick and mortar shops. Another 41 percent had taken pictures so that they would be able to view them in the future. Forty six percent would research the items that they were seeing live in the store. One in every six were “showrooming”, which involves checking out an item in a store in person, but then using the smartphone or tablet to find a better price for it online and purchase it there, instead.

This mcommerce data was based on a survey of 1,000 owners of smartphones in the United Kingdom.

The research was published in a report called “’Agile Consumer 2013”. It was conducted by Cheil Worldwide. It also determined that half of all users of smartphones and tablets had shopping in mind when they purchased their mobile devices.

According to Simon Hathaway, the president of shopper marketing and retail operations at Cheil Worldwide, “The smartphone has become a key element of how we shop, and all evidence points to it having been a bumper post-Christmas sales period for m-commerce.” He added that there has been a near doubling in the amount of time that is spent purchasing products and services over smartphones over the last five years.

Hathaway also stated that even when the phone is not being used for direct mcommerce purchases, it is still a part of the buying process as consumers use it to compare, research, and seek the opinions of others. This, he said, is changing the retail experience entirely “as we become smartphone-focused shoppers – or what we’re calling ‘Agile Consumers’.”