Google: The Mobile Movement: Understanding Smartphone Users

Using smartphones for in-store shopping

Google released some results from a new mobile research paper called “The Mobile Movement: Understanding Smartphone Users.” Conducted by Ipsos OTX, the report polled 5,013 US adult smartphone Internet users at the end of 2010. The big take away is that people use smartphones for local search and shopping.

Some of the key findings:

“Local Information Seekers: Looking for local information is done by virtually all smartphone users and consumers are ready to act on the information they find.

• 95% of smartphone users have looked for local information
• 88% of these users take action within a day, indicating these are immediate information needs
• 77% have contacted a business, with 61% calling and 59% visiting the local business

Purchase-driven Shoppers: Smartphones have become an indispensable shopping tool and are used across channels and throughout the research and decision-making process.

• 79% of smartphone consumers use their phones to help with shopping, from comparing prices, finding more product info to locating a retailer
• 74% of smartphone shoppers make a purchase, whether online, in-store, or on their phones
• 70% use their smartphones while in the store, reflecting varied purchase paths that often begin online or on their phones and brings consumers to the store”

From Gigaom:

“Overall, the survey highlighted how wedded people are to their smartphones. Ninety-three percent of people use smartphones at home, with 39 percent admitting to using their smartphones in the bathroom. The study found 72 percent of users used a smartphone while consuming other media, including a third who watched TV.

That’s what makes the smartphone so potent. It’s with people at all times, and it’s a versatile tool in the hands of consumers, who are only going to use them more and more. The implications for retailers, merchants and advertisers is huge. They need to optimize sites for mobile, make themselves visible to mobile phone users, consider launching mobile apps, and figure out how to engage this mobile audience, because they’re much more informed and active than previous shoppers. For many merchants, it increasingly makes sense to formulate multi-channel strategies that cover mobile, social and in-store campaigns. The smartphone is changing everything, and businesses need to catch up if they want to take advantage of all this upheaval.”