Survey: Back-to-school shoppers rely on mobile for deals

New York -- Shoppers reliance on mobile devices is reflected in a new back-to-school survey by Retale, a location-based shopping platform aggregating weekly circulars from top line retailers for mobile and digital devices.



Among parents that own a mobile device (e.g., smartphone, tablet), 73% use them to shop for back-to-school items, with viewing deals (97%) and comparing prices (96%) being the most common mobile shopping activities.



Other activities include accessing coupons (92%), finding stores (86%), building shopping lists (86%), and buying directly from the device (79%).



Most notably, nearly one in five parents (17% ) are browsing deals, comparing prices, and accessing coupons in-store, showing just how critical mobile is to the brick-and-mortar experience.



“Customers are using it (mobile) in a myriad of ways, both in-store and out-of-store, in order to complete their shopping journeys,” said Pat Dermody, president of Retale. “From finding store locations to seeking deals and savings, customers are telling retailers that they expect to see them on their mobile device. What that means for retailers is that they must continue to move aggressively to develop a meaningful presence at multiple points in mobile all of which might be accessed at any time by a potential customer.”



Also, according to the survey, 76% of parents plan to spend the same amount or more on back-to-school spending as compared to last year, while 24% plan on scaling back and spending less.