52% of Americans did mobile phone research while in stores over the holiday season

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The cross-over between physical and online retail is not just for innovators and techies. It is the way people shop. In a 30 day period spanning Christmas, 52% of Americans who have mobile phones (and who cares about the rest? :-) ) used mobile phones to help them make buying decisions, according to research from Pew Internet.



This is very significant. One of the biggest threats to physical retail stores is that shoppers do price, service, and delivery comparisons while in the shop. Unsurprisingly, better options often come up.

The very high uptake in this study shows this is not an outlier behavior – it is mainstream and it won’t be too long before the significant majority of people will do mobile research while in stores.

Of course this does not mean that physical stores will not exist. They have many reasons to have long and sometimes prosperous lives ahead. However it does mean that their value proposition becomes fundamentally different. Given the overheads of physical retail it is almost impossible to compete on price. This means other factors, of course including the immediacy of customers getting what they want, as well as service, advice, relationship, and other issues, will hold sway.

Retailers must embrace and not deny this future. This study suggests it is not the future, it is the present.