eMarketer: 82% of US digital buyers prefer to research products online

The most common reason to use a mobile phone in a store is to compare prices.

Digital channels are now the go-to channel for researching products and purchasing them. According to a March 2014 study by UPS, comScore and the e-tailing group, 82% of U.S. digital buyers prefer to research products online through multichannel retailers, 61% use a desktop or laptop, 11% use a tablet, 10% use a smartphone, and about 13% prefer physical stores.

Additionally, when it comes to purchasing goods through multi-channel retailers, digital devices are the most popular, with 55% of respondents preferring to use a desktop or laptop, tablet or smartphone when shopping, while 41% prefer to shop in physical stores. Although smartphones and tablets have consistently lagged behind computers in terms of the most popular digital purchasing channels, this does not mean they are unpopular: 46% of users have made a purchase using a smartphone or tablet.

Desktops and laptops are also used to research product options, and mobile phone use is common both in-store and outside of stores. A quarter of respondents said they use their mobile phone to visit stores weekly to research products, and 22% use their mobile phone to search for other options while in store.

Respondents looked for alternatives to ensure they were making the best choice, with the study finding that the most common reason for using a smartphone in-store was to compare prices, at 36%.

A November 2013 study by Research Now for Swirl found similar results: 85% of U.S. smartphone owners used mobile shopping apps in-store, with 81% saying they did so to look for deals.

Brick-and-mortar retailers have tried to combat this behavior, but pure-play e-commerce has proven a challenge, especially Amazon, which recently launched the Fire Phone, including the Firefly, which has fostered “showrooming” (an online term for seeing a product in a store, trying it out, then searching online for the lowest price).

Original compilation from 199IT