MarketingCharts: Convenience, Features Drive Selection of Retailer Sites Over Apps
Through a special arrangement, presented here for discussion is a summary of a current article from MarketingCharts, a Watershed Publishing publication providing up-to-to-minute data and research to marketers.
For mobile owners who prefer using a website than an application when shopping on their device, convenience/ease (39 percent) and additional features (21 percent) are the primary reasons for doing so, according to a survey released by Adobe. Other reasons chosen for preferring a website include navigation (10 percent), look/feel (7 percent), speed (4 percent), security and reliability (each at 3 percent).
When asked what information is most helpful when purchasing a product on a mobile website or app, product information and price was the top choice, at roughly three in five respondents, followed by easy checkout and customer ratings/reviews, each with a slight majority, according to Adobe's 2012 Mobile Consumer Survey Results. More than one-third of respondents also said that visual information, the option to purchase using the website or app, and keyword search for products are also helpful.
Asked what visual features increase the likelihood of making a purchase on a mobile device, close to half cited product side-by-side comparisons, followed by a 360-degree spin, zoom/pan, alternative images, and videos.
Other findings:
- When shopping on mobile websites for consumer products, iPad users reported the highest satisfaction levels, at 75 percent, followed by Amazon Kindle users (73 percent), iPhone users (66 percent), Android tablet users (66 percent) and Android smartphone users (60 percent).
- Mobile users report that a majority of advertisers are providing mobile-optimized experiences when they click through ads on both mobile websites (73 percent) and mobile apps (77 percent).
- A high percentage of mobile users surveyed say that they are clicking through mobile ads presented in both mobile websites and apps, with 42 percent clicking through ads on mobile websites, and 37 percent clicking through ads on mobile apps.
- Men are more likely to click through on mobile ads presented within apps than women (42 percent vs. 32 percent).
- Mobile owners of each age group identified are more likely to have spent $1-$249 on consumer product purchases via a mobile device than any other amount in the past 12 months. The 18-29 group was the most likely of any age group to have spent this amount, followed by the 30-49 and 50-64 age groups. The age pattern was reversed when it came to larger outlays, though: the oldest group was more likely than the younger groups to have spent more than $750 on their devices in the past year.
Adobe surveyed more than 1,200 mobile users in the U.S. in March 2012. The survey was administered by Keynote Services, and categorized preferences based on gender and age.
