The jack-o-lanterns have not yet been lit, but already the forecasts for mobile shopping are putting a fright into brick-and-pmortar retailers.
According to a new survey from Accenture, fully 37 percent of the 500 respondents said they plan to shop online during that period using a desktop, mobile device or tablet. That’s up from 32 percent in 2013.
More than half of consumers surveyed (63 percent) indicated that they will use a laptop or home computer to make purchases or assist in their holiday shopping this season (up 16 percentage points from last year), and 24 percent plan to use a smartphone, up from 18 percent last year.
But it’s the comparison shopping that should have retailers most concerned.
Accorind to the survey more than one-third of shoppers (36 percent) said they would shop this year using a mobile phone, smartphone or tablet in-store in order to compare prices, and 21 percent believe that the technology to do that has improved significantly.
Additionally, half of survey respondents said that they would be willing to try, would definitely use or are using a service that would enable them to pay using their mobile phone at checkout.
“Mobility is having a dramatic impact on retail shopping as customers are walking into retail stores with their own smartphones and tablets, which provides them with complete product and pricing transparency,” said Dave Richards, global managing director for Accenture’s Retail practice. “With over one-third of survey respondents saying they would shop this holiday season using a mobile device in-store in order to compare prices, it is critical for retailers to make it seamless for consumers to trade on mobile applications by incorporating social media and mobile technologies into their stores and multichannel environments. It is more important than ever that retailers switch from a mass-marketing approach to promotions and embrace mobile and other digital tools to deliver more targeted one-to-one offers.”
What it all boils down to is something called showrooming, where users will find the best price online and then go buy it at the retailer.