Tag: m-commerce trends

Smartphone based shopping habits differ from one country to the next, according to a study across 11 markets.

German affiliate marketing network, Zanox, has conducted a data analysis across the 11 international primarily European markets in which it functions, in order to understand the mobile commerce behaviors of the people who live there.

What it determined was that there is actually quite a difference in the way m-commerce is used.

When looking at these habits from one country to the next, consumers use mobile commerce as a different part of their shopping behaviors. What the study revealed was that the United Kingdom and many of the Nordic countries use this technology the most frequently, while Switzerland records the smallest number of mobile transactions. That said, at the same time, Switzerland produces the highest average order value, particularly when it comes to the online travel industry.

This mobile commerce data was released as a part of the Zanox mobile Performance Barometer bi-annual report.

The markets that were included within this report were the United Kingdom, Spain, Austria, Switzerland, Eastern Europe, Benelux, Italy, the Nordic countries, Germany and France.

There were some notable differences that were found to occur from one country or market to the next. For instance, in Spain, there is a traditional summer break that spans from July through September which affected consumer behaviors. During that same span of time, Italy saw a doubling of its transactions when compared to the activity they registered in March.

The periods in which countries traditionally take extended breaks and holidays were also those in which there were the strongest travel bookings made over mobile shopping channels. The increase in mobile sales was comparable in France and Eastern Europe, as they both reached a peak near the end of the year.

That said, throughout all the mobile commerce markets included in this study, there was a notable increase recorded. The boost in growth rates revealed that there has yet to be a maturation of the smartphone based shopping experience and that it continues to steadily develop, said the report that Zanox issued on its findings for the last half year.

The results of a recent Interactive Advertising Bureau study showed shoppers research before making the trip.

The Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) has now released the results of a recent study which revealed that about half of all adult consumers are using mobile commerce to look into products before they head to brick and mortar shops.

This insight could be exceptionally important to retailers that are hoping to draw shoppers into their stores.

Many people do their product research ahead of time using mobile commerce tools, but still want to be able to see the product in real life before they actually make their final purchase. The practice is known as “showrooming” and it is quite popular particularly among shoppers in younger age brackets. This practice can occur when a customer has already decided that they want to buy a product after having read about it on a mobile device but they’d like to see the physical item before actually purchasing it, or it could happen the other way around.

Showrooming also involves customers seeing an item in-store and using mobile commerce to find a better price.

Interestingly, although many retailers have felt threatened by this process as they believe people will simply come to the shop to check out the item but then buy online at a place that sells it for a lower price, the research found that this was not necessarily true. The IAB study indicated that shoppers will typically end up buying the product from within a physical store location after having looked it up online.

The important thing to note is that while they may have looked at a product in store and used m-commerce to find better prices, the store in which the showrooming has happened is not necessarily the one where the purchase has been made. Sometimes customers will visit the most convenient location to look at the item but will then travel to another shop if they find a better price for it there, through the use of their mobile devices.

Millennials are especially in the habit of using this mobile commerce technique. Over two thirds of shoppers in that generation use showrooming. Still, they are more likely to head to another physical store to buy the product than to stay in the current one if they can find a better deal. Shoppers in older generations will often stay within the same store unless the deal offered elsewhere is especially enticing.