By Chuck Martin
Maybe mobile shoppers need some instant gratification to incent their purchasing while in stores.
A reader of The Mobile Coupon App that Didn’t Make It, which appeared in this space yesterday, astutely noted that shoppers “like to get the discounts at time of purchase.”
The former app Endorse asked shoppers to scan their receipts after purchase and receive cash rewards notifications up to several hours later.
A recent mobile commerce study conducted by The Omnibus Company for the digital coupon website RetailMeNot.com seems to support the idea that consumers are attracted to on-the-spot deals.
Researchers found that the majority (51%) of consumers were more likely to enter a store and buy something if they received a coupon on their mobile device while near the store.
Not only a piece of good news for any company working with geo-location technologies, the findings also indicate that instant gratification may be another nudge in shopping behavior.
When a consumer received a coupon on their mobile device when inside the store, an even larger majority (63%) said they would be more likely to buy something.
While hardly a new location-driving factor in shopping behavior, coupons are retaining new power when linked to real-time shopping with mobile devices.
Consumers also are actively looking for coupons as they shop, with some interesting demographic twists.
For example, more parents (45%) than non-parents (27%) searched for a coupon via mobile and more parents (37%) than non-parents (21%) bought something in a store with a coupon they found via mobile.
By age, a majority (63%) of those 18-to-34 years old are likely to buy something if they receive a coupon via mobile while a smaller number (43%) of those older than 35.
The study also found that more men (61%) than women (48%) reported buying something online through their mobile device in the past month.
Maybe the idea of deferred rewards for mobile shoppers is not yet ready for prime time.
Chuck Martin is Editor of the mCommerce Daily at MediaPost and writes the daily MobileShopTalk column. He is the author of “Mobile Influence,” “The Third Screen,” and “The Smartphone Handbook.” He is CEO of Mobile Future Institute. Chuck Martin is a frequent Mobile Keynote Speaker and Mobile Marketing Speaker internationally. He also addresses Social Media in Mobile.
