Shoppers still shy of mobile buying

Research outfit Gartner has found that while consumers are still more likely to browse than to buy using their mobile phones (no surprise there), they are comfortable with checking the price of an item or finding a store on their handset. According to a survey by the company, US shoppers are twice as likely to check for prices of items as to buy items from their mobile phone and UK consumers were similar.

The survey also found that the younger a person is, the more likely they are to buy over their mobiles, with shoppers between 18 and 27 almost twice as likely to mobile shopping than those aged between 43 and 61.

Meanwhile, Gartner says, the changing form factor of mobiles and faster mobile network are leading many retailers to think about adding a mobile channel over the next year or two. Given the continued reluctance of people to go shopping on their mobiles, you could argue that the willingness to push ahead with m-commerce is a bit incongruous. I’d say quite the opposite – how is m-commerce ever going to flourish if there are no mobile stores for users to go to?