By A Bisht
According to a Compete survey for third quarter 2009, smartphone owners are increasingly becoming more comfortable buying from their handsets, but poor mobile site functionality is still a turn-off for many.
But even then the research finds that mobile commerce (m-commerce) is ready to explode in 2010.
Key findings of the survey:
1) 37 percent of smartphone owners have purchased something non-mobile with their handset in the past 6 months.
2) 19 percent of total smartphone owners have purchased music from their device, 14 percent have purchased books, DVDs, or video games and 12 percent have purchased movie tickets.
3) The most popular “mobile shopping-related activities” are the research related. Earlier too, research related activities were among the most popular of all activities. 41 percent of iPhone users and 43 percent of Android users are most likely to check sale prices at alternative locations from their mobile phones while they are shopping.
4) The second most popular/ likely activity is accessing consumer reviews, with 39 percent of iPhone owners and 31 percent of Android owners investigating reviews from their handset before they purchase.
5) M-commerce is poised for explosive growth in 2010.
6) Consumers will abandon mobile purchasing on sites that are not optimized for the on-the-go experience.
7) Regarding the effectiveness of mobile shopping:
8 percent of smartphone owners that tried to purchase a product on their device were unable to do so. Among these 8, 45 percent abandoned the process as site would not load; another 38 percent abandoned as the site was not developed specifically for smartphone users.
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