A poll of European consumers indicated that there remains skepticism about smartphone shopping.
Though mobile commerce security has been an issue in the spotlight over the last while, and there have been significant advancements in this area to ensure that shoppers will be able to keep their data safe when they make a purchase using their smartphones and tablets, a recent survey has revealed that there remains considerable doubt among consumers in Europe.
The survey was used to obtain the opinions of a broad range of consumers throughout the E.U.
The poll was conducted by TechWeekEurope, which asked its readers for their feedback in terms of their opinions regarding mobile commerce services as well as the broader online marketplace. The survey was conducted following the close of the busy holiday shopping season. At that time, only 10 percent of the research respondents indicated that they had used a smartphone or a tablet in order to buy most of their Christmas gifts.
This ranked mobile commerce in fifth place among the various channels where purchases could be made.
Mobile commerce was well behind the other groups of consumers, 25.6 percent of which shopped in retail stores and 43.8 percent of which had opted to use their desktop or laptop computers in order to complete their shopping orders.
Further questions in the survey had consumers indicating that they were not wild about the consumerist nature of the holiday shopping season as a whole. The industry has found the results of this poll to be interesting as it connected with a demographic that was relatively tech savvy. It would be expected that these would be the individuals who would have the greatest likelihood to participate in mobile commerce activities, when compared to people who are less knowledgeable about the technology.
However, it appears as though the individuals who are most comfortable using smartphones and tablets may also be those who aren’t as confident making purchases through those devices. Mobile comers is more likely to be used to assist in making purchasing decisions and to gain more information about products but is not as likely to be used for actually making the final purchase.
