Mobile’s effect on impulse purchases

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Picture this. A shopper enters your store, browses, sees a product they love on the shelf, picks it up and trundles off to pay for it at the checkout.

A classic impulse purchase.

However, that scenario could be forever changed thanks to the proliferation of mobile devices. Shoppers who are still coping with financial concerns are now tempering their impulses by comparing prices via their smartphone.

Nowadays consumers enter a store, see a product they like, whip out their smartphones and start comparing prices. Many leave the store empty handed having found a better deal elsewhere.

According to Nick Holland, senior analyst at the Yankee Group, smartphone-empowered consumers are growing in numbers and, as a consequence, the number of impulse purchases being made is decreasing.

Indeed, he believes those that compare prices via mobile, before succumbing to an emotional buy, show “intelligence and cunning when confronted by aggressive sales staff”.

“Impulse purchases are the opposite,” says Holland “showing personal weakness – they are a dirty little secret that probably isn’t to be shared with others.”

StorefrontBacktalk editor, Even Schuman, disagrees. He believes shoppers, even those armed with smartphones, won’t be able to control their natural urges.

“Impulse purchases are indeed emotional, and rationality does not come nearly as naturally,” he writes.

“For every in-aisle price- and feature-comparison that an Android or iPhone enables, there will be 20 purchases in the heat of the moment. And those impulse purchases will be enabled by mobile.”

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Kristina Knight-1
Kristina Knight, Journalist , BA
Content Writer & Editor
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Kristina Knight is a freelance writer with more than 15 years of experience writing on varied topics. Kristina’s focus for the past 10 years has been the small business, online marketing, and banking sectors, however, she keeps things interesting by writing about her experiences as an adoptive mom, parenting, and education issues. Kristina’s work has appeared with BizReport.com, NBC News, Soaps.com, DisasterNewsNetwork, and many more publications.