Analysts say consumer use of smartphones could combat "showrooming" in retail stores

A new Parks Associates study finds over 25% of CE buyers in U.S. broadband households use mobile commerce apps on their smartphone to help with an in-store purchase decision, including functions such as product research, barcode scanning, and interaction with a retailer or brand app.

Parks Associates' research "Mobile Commerce: Keys to Mass Adoption," released in advance of the 2013 NFC & Mobile Money Summit, reveals 43% of U.S. smartphone users purchased a good via their device in the last month. However, consumers, especially shoppers at Walmart, Target, and Best Buy, are starting to use their smartphones while shopping in stores. Walmart in particular encourages in-store shoppers to use its app, but Parks Associates reports that currently Target shoppers are more likely than Walmart shoppers to use mobile commerce apps when shopping at any store for a CE product.

“Consumers are using apps and smartphones to enhance their brick-and-mortar shopping experience, with Target shoppers emerging as the most enthusiastic app users," said Jennifer Kent, Senior Analyst, Parks Associates. "Our research shows 54% of Target shoppers used at least one mobile commerce app while shopping in a store for CE, while only 38% of Walmart shoppers did the same.”

Parks Associates analysts advise all retailers to embrace mobile commerce apps—both their own and popular third-party apps—as a way to give consumers a differentiated shopping experience that can combat showrooming. Showrooming is a phenomenon where consumers visit a retail store to compare products and prices but ultimately purchase items later online, reducing expensive brick-and-mortar locations to mere “showrooms” for products.

“There’s no such thing as a pure ‘in-store’ shopper anymore,” Kent said.  “Consumers are checking online information about products before, after, and while they shop in stores. Retailers that embrace this trend will be in a good position to drive more sales within their stores.”

Parks Associates is supporting NFC & Mobile Money Summit 2013, October 14-17, in New York. The research firm is offering the research Google Chromecast Owners free to clients who purchase a research project or industry report by October 15. For information, visit www.parksassociates.com or contact [email protected], 972-490-1113.

About Parks Associates: Parks Associates, a woman-founded and certified business, is an internationally recognized market research and consulting company specializing in emerging consumer technology products and services. Founded in 1986, Parks Associates provides business intelligence and research services through its proprietary methodologies developed over decades, including quarterly surveys of 10,000 internet households.

The company's expertise crosses many industries: home security and smart home, streaming video, broadband and pay-TV services, digital media and platforms, gaming, Wi-Fi and home networks, connected health, support, consumer electronics, home control systems, energy management, and tech solutions for the multi-dwelling (MDU), small-to-medium business (SMB), and commercial building markets.

Each year, Parks Associates brings thousands of leaders together for its webinars and annual events. The firm hosts the annual executive research and strategy conferences CONNECTIONS™, Connected Health Summit, Smart Energy Summit, Smart Spaces, and Future of Video. https://www.parksassociates.com
 

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