Why smartphones will make retailers wake up to competitor pricing on the high street and online:
The growing ubiquity of smartphones among the spending classes, i.e the people who still have some cash to spare (more than you think in reality) is starting to really make a difference in spending habits among those who are seeking to save cash while they shop.
Price comparison applications:
The growth of mobile internet on smartphones has given rise to an increasing amount of people who are now more than prepared to access data telling them if they can save some hard earned pennies on anything from a good book to a sofa, to a holiday deal while they are out and about shopping.
Of course big ticket items are well worth researching before you go onto the high street but with savings of well over $40 or £25 to be made on various items in a weekly shop it makes sense that your humble smartphone may well be a money saving machine when used correctly.
Ability to buy on the go:
With various mobile payment systems coming to market for mobile transactions, from Text payments that appear on your bill to fully integrated credit card systems linked to your phone, the area of mobile commerce is going to soar in the coming years. Currently a growing number of forward thinking retailers are putting some effort into allowing their customers to gain access via their mobile and indeed pay for goods and services while they browse.
Indeed some well respected high street stores have simply given in to the pressures that are currently felt on the high street and gone totally web based, a recent case in point being the high brow Habitat chain in the UK which went into administration in June 2011 but said it would carry on as an online entity.
Access to reviews on the go:
One great feature that I have actually used when speculatively looking to buy an aftershave was to simply get myself onto “Fragrantica” and see what the reviews were for an unknown cologne that seemed to be a bargain, result, that shop lost my speculative purchase as it sounded average.
The power of reviews to sway buying decisions is something that retailers are bound to learn the hard way if they are selling at top heavy prices or indeed have a poor range of goods on sale.
People still love to buy goods in shops but are not prepared to pay over the odds when they can easily find out the going price and obtain an almost instant review on various websites that are not even available as applications as yet.
Indeed a great idea for an application would be a crowd sourced user review application where people collaborate and vote on reviews offered on anything they wanted, they could even add video, pictures and text.
Consumers are getting way too savvy of late for retailers to ignore the slow shift in behaviour of their core purchasers.
Top 5 iPhone shopping applications to save cash:
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- Amazon Mobile
- Grocery IQ
- Shopper
- ShopSavvy
- Red Laser
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Have you used your smartphone to make a buying decision of note, saved cash, decided on something different as a result of a review you accessed while shopping?…do tell all?
Anthony Munns