New York – As if brick-and-mortar
retailers don’t have enough online-sales-related issues to deal with, a
PriceGrabber survey finds many people will be using smartphone apps to help
save money while out shopping.
The study found that 39 percent of
smartphone owners have a shopping-related app on their device and that 84
percent of those people intend to use it this holiday shopping season.
The survey was conducted from Oct.
18-26 and included 3,574 U.S. online shoppers.
In addition to those who already
have and use these apps, PriceGrabber found 42 percent of those without an app
plan to download either a new app or do so for the first time. The most popular
apps are those that allow for comparison shopping, with 70 percent surveyed
expressing interest, followed by coupon apps at 65 percent.
Other popular apps include those
capable of checking price via a barcode scan, and before Black Friday, it was
apps that search out deals specific to that day.
PriceGrabber found that 56 percent
of those who used these apps believed they helped get them the best deal, 50
percent cited the convenience of receiving discounts and price notifications
directly to their phone, 38 percent apps enhance their brick-and-mortar
shopping experience and 28 percent enjoyed the apps’ localizations features.
The study also found that consumers
were not going to limit themselves to certain types of purchases via mobile
apps. Sixty-three percent they would buy both big and small ticket items, 20
percent plan to do all of their shopping using these apps, 8 percent will only
buy items worth less than $100, and 5 percent will spend more than $100 with
the apps.
