Mobile Shoppers are H-App-Y Will Buy Books/Elect 4 Black Friday & Beyond

By Lynn Walford 08/23/2012

Mobile Shoppers are H App Y Will Buy Books/Elect 4 Black Friday & Beyond The mobile economy is changing the shopping experience. Mobile shoppers not only love to shop from their mobile devices but attribute great importance to being able to use mobile apps in and outside of stores.

According to Apigee, 82% of all Americans think mobile shopping is great for these reasons:

Browsing for deals wherever you are – 50%.
Performing price comparisons inside a store – 48%.
Using a mobile device to find a retail store – 40%.
Redeeming electronic coupons – 38%.
Secretly shopping without a spouse/significant other knowing – 25%.
Buying embarrassing or personal items without using a work computer – 14%.
Sneaking shopping time in at work – 12%.

More than half (54%) say there could be consequences when a retailer does not have a mobile app. The top concern was that they could waste a trip to the store looking for items they don’t carry (30%), followed by:

I could lose out on the best deals the store offers – 25%.
It makes me think the retailer is old-fashioned – 19%.
I could lose time – 17%.
I could lose money – 12%.
It could hurt my loyalty to the store – 7%.

A further 7% said it could even make them think the retailer doesn’t respect its customers. Interestingly, the Millenials are the generation most likely to say there will be consequences, and men are more likely to say so than women (58% vs. 49%) “

"These findings demonstrate that the app economy is having a big impact on the way we live, and people are increasingly demanding a lot more from the apps they use every day," said Chet Kapoor, Apigee CEO. “APIs are the ‘magic ingredient’ in mobile apps, and Apigee’s new API platform is helping build a digital world where we all shop, communicate and connect across apps on trillions of mobile devices.”

Three out of five (57%) mobile app users^[1] would consider purchasing their holiday gifts this year on a mobile device. The The top items include:

Books – 32%.
Electronics – 31%.
Gift cards – 27%.
DVDs/Blu-ray Discs – 26%.
Clothing – 24%.
Toys – 20% .

This research comes on the heels of other related studies including:

Parents are more like to use their mobile phones for shopping-related activities compared to those without children - Placecast
Nielsen found that almost half of U.S. smartphone owners (47%) used shopping apps in June 2012
Shopping app Onanvo found that Mobile shoppers compare prices most on Saturdays, buy most on Sundays and Mondays

Apigee is the leading provider of API technology and services for enterprises and developers. Hundreds of companies including Walgreens, Netflix, eBay, Pearson, and Gilt Groupe as well as tens of thousands of developers use Apigee to simplify the delivery, management and analysis of APIs and apps. Apigee's global headquarters are in Palo Alto, California, and it also has offices in Austin, Texas, Bangalore, India and London. Learn more at www.apigee.com. Download full infrographic.