INSIGHTS

For obvious reasons—ease-of-use the most notable one—smartphones are leading charge in mobile commerce. According to e-Marketer, one third of smartphone users purchased an item after seeing it in the store. 28% purchased an item on their phone when it wasn’t available at a store. Another 28% purchased an item without seeing it in a store. Other activities include checking the status of a submitted rebate, checking to see if an item was available for pick-up and, of course, price comparison.

But the most common smartphone behaviours to date (near 50% and higher) include checking consumer/third-party reviews, product descriptions, looking up shipping information and confirming store hours and location. Deloitte found that one fifth of smartphone users were planning to engage in shopping activities with their phones this past holiday season. It will be interesting to see what research is revealed in the coming months.