Thirty-eight percent of all smartphone owners, and 64% of smartphone owners between the ages of 18-24, say that they have found the best deals this holiday season while using their smartphones, says study

Allison Oesterle

LOS ANGELES , December 20, 2011 (Industry Intelligence) – According to a study conducted by GfK Custom Research North America LLC and market and technology firm SapientNitro, 38% of all smartphone owners, and 64% of smartphone owners between the ages of 18-24, say that they have found the best deals this holiday season while using their smartphones, Internet Retailer reported on Dec. 19.

Chris Davey, the global head of commerce at SapientNitro, said, “As the use of digital devices moves more and more to the forefront of Americans’ shopping behavior, the ease of finding deals with them—whether through research, social media, deal sites and the like—has eased the pressures of gift giving in this down economy. This empowerment comes at the right time given that many Americans plan to spend less on holiday shopping this year than they did last year.”

39% of survey respondents reported that their smartphones had enriched their shopping experiences thus far over the holiday season.
31% of survey respondents indicated that they had used the GPS feature on their smartphones to assist with their holiday shopping, and 30% had used a mobile ap on their smartphone to either purchase or search for a product over the holiday season.
19% of smartphone owners reported that they had used their phone to scan a QR code in order to find additional product information.
18% of smartphone owners reported that they had used a mobile coupon while purchasing an item online.

The study also found that, among tablet owners, 42% reported that they had used a mobile ap on their tablet to either purchase or search for a product.

41% of tablet owners reported that they had used their tablet to scan a barcode in order to find additional product information.

According to comScore Inc., out of the 234 million people in the U. S. who are mobile subscribers, 89 million, or 38% of them, own smartphones.

The primary source of this article is Internet Retailer, Chicago, Illinois, on Dec. 19, 2011.

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