Consumers are increasingly willing to purchase via mobile devices. Implementation of payment technologies and the better browsing/purchasing experiences available on mobile have played an important role in increasing consumer confidence. The growth in willingness to purchase via mobile is measurable. In 2011, only 29% of US consumers said they had purchased via their smartphone. In 2013, this has increased to 46%. Similarly, 39% of consumers in the UK now claim to have purchased via their mobile, up from 28% in 2011.
Yet smartphones are not simply being used for purchasing alone. Consumers are also ‘showrooming’ on mobile. This involves using a smartphone to compare prices while in-store. Latest statistics show 43% of UK consumers and 50% of US consumers undertake such activity when shopping. For some however, this is as far they will go in their use of mobile technology for purchasing decisions, with barriers to mobile commerce continuing to exist, particularly around screen sizes and security.
For those who do purchase on mobile devices, frequency of purchase is relatively frequent: 40% of both UK and US consumers state they buy via their smartphone on a monthly basis, while 42% of UK consumers and 40% of consumers in the US say they do so at least once a week. Nearly 9% of smartphone owners in the US also claim to purchase via mobile every day; this drops to just 3.6% in the UK.
Consumer desire to purchase via mobile will continue to increase as they better understand the benefits of payment services and mobile apps become better at handling security compliance. This will likely improve as technologies such as Beacon become more widely available for consumer use.
M&C Saatchi Performance is an forward-thinking performance marketing agency focused on driving measurable results for organisations in all industries. Feel free to get in touch with us about your new project.
