Mobility Is Changing The Purchase Habit Of Users

By Author: Kelly Burby
Total Articles: 349
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More than half of American users over the age of 14 own a smartphone. Pew Research Center says that one-in-four American users own a tablet or e-reader type device. This simple data make us aware of how many people have these devices.

Consumers are using these devices at lots of places such as to make online purchase and to have a big dose of entertainment through mobile games. A big group of users complete their routine purchasing activities through mobile devices such as smartphones and tablet PCs.

When it comes to daily purchases, the major party involved the business are brick-and-mortar stores. Brick and mortar stores around the world have discovered mobility as a powerful tool driving more sales.

A Neilson’s survey suggests that about 42% users use their tablets to make online purchase. In the same survey, another 29% users revealed that they use their smartphones to purchase various routine stuffs online. And about 79% users revealed that they use either of the devices to make online purchases.

Let us have look at each of the devices individually to find some interesting data. Most users ...
... use their smartphones for things like in-store research and setting up on-the-go tasks. These devices are also used for getting store directions, looking up mobile coupons or making a shopping list. All these activities are completely favored by the smartphone because they fit in one’s pocket.

As far as tablet is concerned, data say that tablet devices are used more in a consumer research phase of making a buy. Tablets are more preferred in terms of researching an item before making a purchase. Many users use their tablets while writing reviews after making a purchase. And the interesting part of the data is that there are more users using tablets to make purchases than any of the smartphones. About half of the surveyed users agreed that they use tablet devices to make online purchases.

This may somewhat indicate that many users do not use their smartphone to make purchases but at the positive side, users are using tablet devices to make purchases. This data is helpful for mobile developers who are naturally paying less attention on mobile application development dedicated to tablet devices. The data also hints towards the way the trend is heading.

The trend of tablet is of course helpful for businesses. They are the devices used for research and then buy products. Smartphones are most likely used in scanning a product, discovering better price and then finishing the purchase activity through tablet devices.