The Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) has released a first-of-its-kind list of American cities that ranks them in terms of how mobile shopping savvy they are, with Houston topping the list.
The report ranked the cities based on their mobile shopping audience and what proportion of the people who live within those cities either used mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets to research products to be purchased later in brick-and-mortar shops, or actually made the purchases online using the device.
According to the Deputy Director of the IAB Mobile Marketing Center of Excellence, Joe Laszlo, “Identifying mobile shoppers and delivering relevant messages to consumers as they are in shopping mode represents a key opportunity for marketers.”
He went on to explain that this was why the firm went beyond the typical research and identified the studies where marketers would need to rapidly adopt mobile strategies as a part of their campaigns to generate consumer attention, both during the holiday season and all year long.
The top three positions on the list were held by Houston, New York City, and Atlanta, but San Francisco’s position was startlingly low in eleventh place, considering that it is thought of as one of the technology centers of the country.
The top 15 list from the 2011 IAB U.S. Mobile Shopping Savvy Cities Index is:
15. Phoenix
14. Minneapolis/St. Paul
13. Detroit
12. Boston
11. San Francisco Bay Area
10. Seattle/Tacoma
9. Washington, D.C.
8. Philadelphia
7. Chicago
6. Tampa/St. Petersburg
5. Dallas/Ft. Worth
4. Los Angeles
3. Atlanta
2. New York City
1. Houston
