Nielsen: Mobile drives spending, engagement

The ubiquity of consumer smartphones offers retailers a new purchase channel, as well as a new tool for customer outreach.



According to the fourth quarter 2015 Mobile Wallet Report from Nielsen, 37% of more than 3,700 U.S. adult smartphone and tablet users said their purchases start with mobile shopping more than one-quarter to half of the time.



Dividing responses by type of device used, the study found that 72% of smartphone shoppers research an item before purchasing it. In addition, 70% check the price of an item, 60% use a store locator to find a store where they can buy their desired product of choice, and 53% read a review of an item they purchased or plan to purchase



In comparison, 66% of tablet shoppers researched an item before purchasing it, while 57% checked the price of an item.



Fifty-one percent of tablet shoppers read a review of an item they purchased or plan to purchase.



Smartphone users also outpaced their tablet-using peers in the all-important activity of purchasing a physical device to be delivered or picked up. Forty percent of smartphone shoppers and 37% of tablet shoppers executed this type of mobile transaction at least once during the fourth quarter.



The survey also found that consumers want to be able to see product pictures over everything else when shopping on a mobile phone (62%). Shoppers also want mobile-friendly versions of the websites they visit via mobile (48%), and 44% of respondents said that having the product descriptions was also highly important.



According to Nielsen’s Mobile Measurement metering service which measures the activities of about 9,000 adult smartphone users, app usage is also accelerating when it comes to commerce and shopping. Notably, app usage increased 15% in time spent and unique audience year-over-year between fourth-quarter 2014 and fourth-quarter 2015.



After purchasing, consumers’ predominant shopper activity is tracking order progress (65%), followed by visiting a retailer site/app on their mobile device to browse and/or shop again (51%). And 33% of consumers say they use their smartphones to sign up for a rewards program after making a purchase on their smartphone.