New analysis from Bizrate Insights indicate that online purchases on mobile devices are growing quickly, and have been for about two years.
To mobile watchers and commerce enthusiasts that insight likely comes as little surprise. Somewhat more surprising perhaps is how many holdouts there out who are not tapping mobile at all, according to the Bizrate data about 12 percent of all shoppers.
Among those who have “wired” in to mobile, the use patterns are changing. The tablets were at one time the dominant mobile form factor for both mobile browsing and mobile transactions, though that status is rapidly eroding as smartphones are eating up a progressively larger slice of marketshare. As of Q1 2016, online sales on iPhones and iPads were running equally, while Android purchases have been on the incline. Android tablets were a negligible part of the result, though the data indicates that does not represent a change.
And while the online changes to shopping behavior might be expected in the era when everyone is always online – the data also indicates that in=store shopping patterns are also re-adjusting themselves around mobile. More than 20 percent of consumers use their phones while shopping in-store, while 63 percent check whether an item is in stock before they plan a store visit. Consumers also tend to use their phones to check if items in one retailer’s store are on sale online or in another location, while 58 percent compare a store’s in-store value vs. what the same goods are being offered for on their eCommerce site.
