The favorite apps are those that simplify retail purchasing, such as those that guide the in-store process.
The results of a new study by Parks Associates have now been released and have shown that over one in four shoppers of consumer electronic products in the United States who have broadband capable devices use mobile commerce apps on their smartphones in order to help them to make a purchasing decision.
They use a number of different features from these applications to help them to decide what is best.
Among the favorite mobile commerce app features, said the report, were functions for product research, QR code and barcode scanning, as well as apps that provide interactions with brands and the retailers themselves. The report on the research was published by Parks Associates under the title “Mobile Commerce: Keys to Mass Adoption”.
Forty three percent of American smartphone owners used mobile commerce to help buy a product in September.
Consumers – particularly those that shopped at Best Buy, Walmart, and Target – were also noted to be beginning to use their smartphones to make purchasing decisions via mobile commerce channels while they are actually in the stores. These three brands all encourage their shoppers to use their own apps while they are within their stores. According to Parks Associates, it is Target shoppers that are most likely to use these applications while they are looking to purchase a consumer electronics product.
According to a Parks Associates senior analyst, Jennifer Kent, “Consumers are using apps and smartphones to enhance their brick-and-mortar shopping experience, with Target shoppers emerging as the most enthusiastic app users.” She also stated that “Our research shows 54% of Target shoppers used at least one mobile commerce app while shopping in a store for CE, while only 38% of Walmart shoppers did the same.”
The analysts behind the mobile commerce report suggested that all retailers begin to embrace the smartphone friendly experience – both with their own apps and third party products – as a method of providing consumers an enhanced overall shopping experience, as well as a front line defense against losing sales to showrooming.
