Despite the proliferation of and buzz around branded shopping apps, a new study from Siteworx shows that 65.7% of people surveyed prefer using the Web site to downloading an app specifically for the retailer. This survey reinforces the idea that most people are bringing their Web habits onto their devices and often are using search as the means to get to a particular Web site or simply typing in a Web address. Meanwhile, consumers need a good reason to download an app.
Special offers were among the most important things that lead people to download an app, followed by browsing faster than the Web site or gaining specific loyalty benefits. Convenience also is an incentive, giving users a reason to download an app as well as a reason for the user to remember that the app is there.
The survey also found that product reviews were the key driver behind people making purchases after using their mobile device for shopping. Price comparisons were the next most popular driver of purchase activity. All told, it’s all about the product when it comes to mobile applications and Web sites for retailers. Among mobile users, 39.9% said they were checking out product reviews on mobile devices and 39.1% said they were browsing related products.
According to the survey, very few people actually used their smartphone to make a purchase gift this holiday season. Only 3.4% said they used their smartphone, and 4% said they used their tablet to make a holiday purchase. Nearly a majority of people — 48.1% — said they were making their holiday purchases at brick-and-mortar stores. But another 44.4% said they were using their desktop or laptop computers.
Not surprisingly, the tablet has become a place where people are more eager to buy than on their smartphone. During the holiday season, 18.6% of tablet owners said they made a purchase using their device, in contrast to 12.8% of smartphone owners.
While some aspects of the survey seem to discourage the view of smartphones of purchasing devices, in fact, more than half the people surveyed said that during the month of December they had made at least one purchase on their cell phone and 30.7% said they made 2 to 3 purchases on their cell phone.
