Incentives lure consumers to buy on mobile devices

November 8th, 2011

Smartphones More consumers are planning to use their mobile device to make a purchase this holiday season than ever before, particularly if offered a discount, coupon, gift card, loyalty points or prompted by a text alert.

That’s according to a joint national survey conducted by Sybase 365, a mobile messaging and mobile commerce services firm, and the Mobile Marketing Association (MMA).

The survey of 1,000 consumers found that more than half (62%) would be willing to make a purchase on their mobile device this holiday season if prompted by coupons, discount offers, text alerts, gift cards or loyalty points.

In a similar survey conducted by Sybase 365 a year ago, only 32% of respondents said that mobile incentives would encourage them to make a purchase on their device.

Mobile momentum provides marketing opportunities

“The results from this survey clearly indicate a growing appetite for mobile commerce services,” said John Sims, president of Sybase 365.

“While we still have ground to cover in terms of widespread adoption, the momentum we are seeing provides opportunities for merchants who are seeking to increase revenue and customer retention by offering mobile shopping and incentives. ”

In the absence of coupons, discount offers or other enticements suggested above, 56% of consumers surveyed would be likely to use their mobile device for one of the following uses: to find a store location (38%), compare prices (34%), researching deals and coupons (28%), find a product review (27%) or make a purchase (22%).

Among the key areas where greater adoption inroads stand to be made is the availability of mobile commerce solutions from widely known, trusted channels.

Asked which solution would encourage greater use of mobile payments for holiday shopping, one in four respondents (25%) reported that they would be more likely to make mobile payments if the solution was offered by their financial institution, while 22% would be persuaded by a solution such as PayPal and 18% would be influenced by a solution from a credit card company.

“With more consumers than ever before planning to make the shift towards mobile this holiday season, it’s a clear indication that merchants ignore the mobile commerce wave at their own risk,” said Michael Becker, managing director for North Americafor the Mobile Marketing Association.

Consumers expect to use their mobile devices even more

“Consumers grasp the value, convenience and flexibility that existing mobile commerce campaigns grant them, and they expect to use their mobile devices more and more. Marketers, brands and retailers that recognize this and work to realize the potential of mobile will have an edge, not only this holiday season, but moving forward.”

Merchants have stepped up their efforts to leverage the mobile channel, with 53% of respondents indicating they are aware of existing mobile campaigns from Target, Starbucks, Best Buy, Amazon.com, Apple or Groupon.

“While it’s encouraging to see awareness and adoption of mobile commerce services continue to ramp up, widespread adoption among all stakeholders will require more extensive harmonizing of standards in the same way that has fueled the broad proliferation of SMS and MMS technologies,” Sims added.

*Sybase, MMA and Opinion Research Corporation, an Infogroup company, make no warranty, express or implied, with respect to the data presented, nor assume any liability for any loss or damage resulting from its use. The sample size of 1,000 carries a margin of error of +/- 3% at a 95% confidence level. This margin of error would be greater for any subsets of the sample.

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