Over half (57 per cent) of smartphone owners have bought products using their handset with almost all (93 per cent) of smartphone owners accessing the internet via their phones, according to research from Savvy Marketing.
The survey of 1,000 household shopping decision makers looked at how the UK’s shoppers are now interacting with their phones and revealed that shoppers can be found browsing at any place or any time, not just when they’re in stores of logged in at their computers.
According to the survey Waitrose shoppers were the most likely to own a smartphone (75 per cent) followed by Tesco, ASDA and Sainsbury’s shoppers with 68, 68 and 69 per cent respectively. Smartphone ownership for Morrisons and the Co-op shoppers stood at 64 per cent,.
Despite the portable nature of handsets 85 per cent of respondents did the majority of their browsing at home, with 60 per cent claiming they had accessed the internet via their handset while watching TV. Outside the home shoppers were most likely to be online while commuting (51 per cent), at bars/pubs (45 per cent) and at work (42 per cent). A further 36 per cent went online while they were out shopping.
“The proliferation of smartphones now means that shoppers are constantly connected and can literally be inspired to buy a product at any time or any place. This is a trend we call ubiquitous shopping…With shoppers now able to buy products from their favourite retailers at pretty much at any time, traditional advertising should no longer only be about building awareness and love of brands, it should be actively encouraging a purchase,” commented Alastair Lockhart, head of insight at Savvy Marketing.
Smartphone users were also revealed to use their phone to plan shopping trips with 45 per cent looking up product information, 34 per cent checking store locations, and 33 per cent checking prices. A quarter of those taking part also said they used their handsets to seek out discount vouchers.
eBay and Amazon were found to be shoppers most popular destinations (48 per cent), followed by Tesco or its Clubcard mobile app with 23 per cent, and Sainsbury’s or its Nectar app taking third place with 20 per cent.
Lockhart added: “Increasingly the path to purchase is not about a linear shopping experience that involves someone walking around a supermarket, the path to purchase is simply the way that people live their lives – inspiration can hit at any time and they should be able to buy at any time.”