Tag: retail mobile commerce

New survey shows that 30% of smartphone users plan to make mobile payments in stores

The holiday season is rapidly approaching and retailers expect to see a great deal of activity in the mobile commerce space. Some may be too cavalier with their expectations, however, as a new survey from Stratos suggests that mobile shopping is only an interest to the minority of consumers. The survey found that 30% of smartphone users plan to pay for products in physical stores using Apple Pay or Google Wallet.

The demand for in-store payment support is rising, but consumers are slow to respond to new services

In-store mobile payments are still rare, but retailers have been investing heavily in bolstering the infrastructure to support these payments over the past year. Many retailers want to see consumers use their mobile devices in their stores, expediting the checkout process and taking advantage of the mobile services that these retailers have employed. Consumers may be more prone to shop online with their mobile devices, however, rather than use their devices to purchase products in physical stores.

Lack of awareness among consumers may be the reason behind slow adoption

The survey also found that 69% of consumers do not know which retailers actually accept mobile payments in their stores. Many retailers have been sluggish in promoting their mobile commerce services, which has lead to a lack of awareness among consumers. Some retailers are not convinced that mobile commerce is a worthwhile investment. While they have taken moves to support mobile payments, they have only done so to accommodate consumer demand to a modest degree.

Consumers may favor mobile commerce as a way to avoid having their payment cards lost or stolen

The survey found that the most popular reason consumers would use mobile payments was to limit the threat of having their credit or debit card stolen. During the holidays, stores become packed with shoppers. Some seek to exploit the financial information of others by stealing their payment cards. In other cases, the commotion at stores can cause people to misplace and lose their payment cards. While mobile devices are not theft proof, consumers often keep a better handle on their smartphones than their payment cards.

A new research study has revealed that these shoppers are enjoying the opportunities that smartphone shopping provides.

According to a report that has been published by eMarketer, retailers that are hoping that their holiday shopping sales will be better than ever, this year, will likely want to look into targeting more mobile commerce campaigns toward shoppers within the Hispanic community.

The research revealed that Hispanic shoppers within the United States are using m-commerce to buy.

The eMarketer report revealed that in the U.S., Hispanic consumers have a greater likelihood to make a purchase by way of a smartphone or tablet than their non-Hispanic counterparts. The research was conducted in August and showed that 52 percent of Hispanic shoppers had purchased clothing over mobile commerce within the month prior to the survey. Comparatively, only 38 percent of non-Hispanic shoppers had done the same.

That said, there were many other areas in which Hispanic shoppers used mobile commerce more than non-Hispanics.

Among those areas of m-commerce where Hispanic consumers were shopping more included electronics, music, as well as movie tickets. Moreover, making purchases wasn’t the only shopping activity that was conducted over smartphones and tablets by consumers within this demographic. They were also reading reviews of the products that they were considering (53 percent). Non-Hispanics read reviews over mobile devices only 44 percent of the time.

As Hispanic shoppers informed themselves about products they were considering, they also looked into expert product ratings and not just those left behind by other shoppers. Thirty six percent of shoppers within that ethnic background had searched for the advice of an expert when deciding whether or not they would buy an item or service. Among non-Hispanics, that figure was only 26 percent.

Online videos and social media about products were the two other most important areas where Hispanic shoppers were seeking out information when they were considering a purchase over mobile commerce. That said, among all of the American shoppers, regardless of ethnic background, almost half of the participants in the research had made purchases over a smartphone or tablet during the month previous to the study.