65% smartphone users make retail purchases via mobile, says study

Around 65 per cent of smartphone users have used their phones to make a retail purchase and around 81 per cent of them use social media to seek advice before buying, a study released by First Data Corp-ICICI Merchant Services says. It is also found that nearly 79 per cent of smartphone users have at least one retailer app on their mobile devices.

The study was conducted in April 2013 among 4,000 or so smartphone and social media users across 10 markets – India, China, Singapore, the Middle East (the UAE, Saudi Arabia and Egypt), the US, the UK, Germany, Poland, Mexico and Brazil. The respondents consisted of banked consumers. First Data is a global technology and payments processing leader.

The study also mentions that the number of mobile users is growing faster than web traffic. "Mobile commerce today is a platform to take e-commerce to the masses, something that works for everyone," it states.

It also notes that in spite of security concerns, online banking is rising in India. This is evident from the fact that over half the respondents feel that online debit card and credit card purchases are secure (56 and 51 per cent, respectively). However, with smartphones flooding the markets, consumers want to access their bank accounts through their banking apps. Around 68 per cent of the smartphone/tablet users have downloaded their banks' apps onto their devices.

Also, 63 per cent of respondents are aware of the mobile wallet concept. Predictably, smartphone users are more likely to be interested in mobile wallets than basic phone users (63 per cent versus 37 per cent). As per the study, Indians would like to use mobile wallet if it is safe and faster.

(Edited by Sanghamitra Mandal)