U.S. shoppers prefer shopping with mobile phone: survey

According to the annual survey carried out by Deloitte, an accounting and consulting firm, one in five shoppers intend to use the cell phone for Christmas shopping this year.

45 percent of these shoppers are going to use mobiles to check the prices offered by different stores, 32 percent will use the application to find available discount coupons, and 25 percent will be shopping straight through their cell phones.

Stacy Janiak, the retail practice leader at Deloitte, US informs, “We are at the cusp of this technology really driving a lot of activity during the shopping season.”

“It is both an opportunity and a challenge for a retailer, because you can have a consumer who can cross-shop your store with other bricks-and-mortar stores or online, all from the convenience of your aisle,” she adds.

Online retailers revamp mobile versions of websites to help shoppers
Many new and efficient software applications for the mobile phones have enabled consumers to bargain better and also to find out stores that offer the best price for any commodity.

Mobile applications like ShopSavvy, RedLaser, TheFind, ShopStyle and PriceGrabber.com facilitate consumers to compare prices across a range of retailers within a few minutes and help in saving time and money.

RetrevoQ is another online service that lets users send text or twitter messages regarding the product to be purchased and receive immediate replies on recommended stores and a range of prices offered by different retailers to facilitate buying.

Offline retailers lure cell phone users by sending electronic coupons on the phone itself, and online retailers are making easy to access websites for the shoppers’ convenience.

The mobile versions of the websites have made it easy for shoppers to use the sites. Users just need an email ID and password to access information from these websites.

“Retailers need to realize that if you give people a way to make it easy, people will shop on their phones,” says Kelly O’Neill, Product Marketing Director for ATG, a firm that provides e-commerce technology to retailers.

Offline retailers Vs online retailers
Apart from giving price benefit, online retailers have little else to offer. It takes the products purchased online more time to reach at your doorstep, but in regular stores, you just need to step into a store to get what you want instantly.

Offline retailers are also cashing on the power of mobile phones to give incentives to shoppers. Some use the GPRS location information in cell phones to send coupons for stores within walking distance of where the shopper is at the time of using the application.

“This empowers consumers to make a smart decision. Already, retailers are starting to figure out, ‘I need to be in this game’,” concludes Alexander Muse from ShopSavvy.