Smartphone Apps are Changing Consumer’s Shopping Behavior

Is mobile apps are changing the shopping behavior of customers? If we look at the recent studies then the answer is, yes! According to the recent studies, about 66% or 2/3rd of the US consumers are more likely to buy from the shop having a mobile app compared to the one which doesn’t have an app.

Mobile retail marketing has changed over the period of time and also the shopping patterns or behaviors have changed e.g. the location based marketing is one of the newest addition into this developing and changing trend. The report from Apigee called “The Mobile Mandate for Retail – 3 criteria for making the most of mobile apps in retail”, recommends that the figure has risen to 84% when it comes to consumers who regularly use the apps for carrying out various tasks. These consumers are termed as app ‘power users’. People are increasingly using app related to ecommerce or in other words, shopping apps for various reasons like busy schedules, no need to travel anywhere and product is delivered at your doorstep and also slashed prices and sales. Nevertheless, whatever is the reason behind using the app for shopping, a consumer always think ahead and never forgets to compare the prices with other stores although using a mobile app has made it easier. There are some sites which also allows you to compare the products and let you know the best price offered for any product.

Are mobile apps affecting the physical store services?

There are many things or products which confuses the customer while buying online e.g. a jewelry piece. A customer can’t decide whether it will look good on them or not. Also buying a new perfume maybe. Here physical stores are important because the product is in front of them and they can wear it or try it before making the decision. This actually means building a trust in a customer. However, an online shopping doesn’t not give you a freedom to try the stuffs while buying it. Here, marketers and developers are planning to take a technically advance step to bridge this gap between the physical store and online store and coming up with this futurist application for retail sector. This technology is known as augmented reality. Developers are still working on this proposed application which will give you a virtual reality world (here you can see, hear, sense and smell), where you can try these products easily with the help of a gadget and an application. So with the challenging business needs many retail sectors would definitely include this application in their business for more customers and better customer experience.

What are the actual 4 trends which are affecting the consumer buying behavior?

Price Comparison: As discussed above, the price comparing with other ecommerce portals, discounted prices and also the coupons etc. always influenced a customer to go for online shopping.

Social Media Influence: Today social media has a great impact over the consumer and their buying behavior. While surfing on these social media if something fascinating or captivating product charmed the customer then he/she would definitely goes for it. And if he/she can find the reviews and likes of his/her friends and family over the same product then the purchases are more likely.

Strong Customer Relationship: Today marketing is not one directional and it has become now multi-directional. Which definitely helps in building that trust and comfort in the customer. Today consumers are smart and there is nothing by which you can make fool out of it. So if you really want to become a leader; customer satisfaction is the key to lead it.

Flash Retailers: The closeness of mobile shopping creates new opportunities for consumers to be updated on these latest deals on flash sales sites. There are more than 40% of Active Mobile Consumers who uses flash sites, which is more than twice the percentage of Mobile Window Shoppers. Flash sites are also distracting the market by capturing share of planned purchases from other sources.

So at the end, the rise of mobile app development definitely not just lead to many other things which will ultimately make our life easy but also it provides a feature to a marketer by which they can maintain the trust and harmony with customers.