Gone are the days where the use of smartphones was limited to "geeks". Nowadays, shoppers are now utilizing the potential of smartphones as a tool to help them get through their shopping needs.

ComScore Inc., a Chicago-based digital research firm remarked that mobile shopping activity has certainly increased for the past years. According to the report done by the company, two-thirds of customers utilize their mobile devices when shopping. The research showed that 8.2% of mobile users visited a mobile shopping site for the month of September. This percentage showed an increase in mobile shopping as compared to last year's result of 4.8%. The research also revealed that 36 million Americans accessed mobile shopping content or activities as of September.

One of the most frequent activities done by these smartphone users is comparing prices of items sold in different stores. Here are some of the results mentioned in ComScore's research:

  • 30% of smartphone shoppers research about products and price details
  • 26% of smartphone shoppers scan the bar codes in order to compare prices among different retailers
  • 43% of females access mobile shopping content
  • 57% of males access mobile shopping content
  • 61% of consumers who access mobile shopping content are under 34 years old
  • 48% of consumers accessing mobile shopping content earn more than US$75,000 per year

The research firm also expressed that they are expecting these numbers to grow as more and more people rely on their smartphones to be their "personal concierge" when shopping. Mark Donovan, a senior vice president for ComScore also commented on the company's research regarding smartphone shopping saying that "mobile phones are empowering consumers to find the best prices on the things they want and to compare among merchants."

Before, shoppers only relied on their mobile devices in terms of finding the direction of different stores. Nowadays, the reliance of shoppers to their mobile devices has certainly evolved. Retailers should be able to cope with this sudden change through tapping into mobile apps to connect with customers. Acquity Group, an online marketing firm revealed that "only one-quarter of major retail chains offer their own mobile apps and just over one-third of retail chains have a mobile website." Though these figures have improved as compared to previous years, retailers should increase its involvement in mobile shopping so that they would be able to cope with this sudden change in shopping behavior.