BY CHRIS BYRNE ON 24 MAY 2012
Smartphones: they can help you navigate foreign cities, local eateries, real estate and even the field of nearby singles waiting to beat down your door. They can also help you navigate the retail landscape, a fact retailers are becoming increasingly wary of. Marketing presents, and explains, its original infographic on how the smartphone is increasingly being used as a personal shopping assistant below.
As of February this year, one in three smartphone owners had used their device in-store to aid the shopping process, according to TNS’ ‘Joining the Dots’ study, a figure that’s likely to have jumped since. The savvy shoppers who use their phone as a secondary shopping channel while they browse the aisles bounce back and forth between bricks- and-mortar and online merchants, sniffing out the best products and the best deals. They seek the best of both worlds, walking the showroom for a tactile experience with products or the instant gratification of buying on the spot, and checking their phone for price comparisons, independent reviews or more detailed information.
