Retail Mobile Apps Survey: Current Customers Likely to Continue Using Apps

Mobile apps have made their mark on a number of different industries. For retail companies, mobile apps make it possible to easily sell products to customers directly on their smartphones or mobile devices. And mobile commerce is growing fast, according to a report from eMarketer. So how many consumers regularly shop using mobile apps? And what do they think about the future of mobile commerce? We asked 1,000 respondents about their thoughts on retail mobile apps and mobile shopping.

Retail Apps

In Ask Your Target Market’s latest online survey, 32% of respondents said that they’ve used multiple retail mobile apps in the past. And 16% have used just one mobile app for shopping purposes. The most popular app among those mobile consumers was Amazon. But others also mentioned apps from Walmart, eBay, Target and Ibotta as popular shopping or retail apps.

Shopping Habits

In general, 71% of those who have used retail apps said that they enjoy shopping using mobile apps. 57% of them said they shop using mobile apps regularly. 72% think that mobile apps make shopping easier. And 46% said that they are actually more likely to shop using mobile apps than they are to shop online.

Future Users

Looking forward, 38% of overall respondents said that they are at least somewhat likely to use or download retail or shopping mobile apps within the next year. Of those who have already used retail mobile apps, 65% said they are likely to use or download new apps in the next year. In addition, those who are likely to use or download retail apps were also likely to go to movie theaters, be ring consumers and use services like Dropbox, according to Personality Radar.

Key Takeaways

Retail mobile apps have already made an impact on about half of consumers. And while more said they are likely to shop using mobile apps within the next year, the majority of potential future users are those who have already used shopping apps at some point. However, that could present opportunities for the companies that use mobile apps as a major part of their strategy. Most of those who have shopped using mobile apps think that doing so is easier than shopping in person or online. So companies could potentially create a simple process for current users to refer new downloads or even just call attention to the ease of the process within ads or other marketing materials. You can view the complete survey results in the widget below and be sure to click “Open Full Report” to take advantage of all the chart and filter options.Photo Credit: Shopping with iPhone by Jason Howie under CC BY 2.0What do you want to know? If you need some consumer insights on a particular topic, let us know in the comments below and we’ll consider it for an upcoming survey post.

Results were collected on January 24-25 via AYTM’s online survey panel.