Retail Research – I-Want-to-Buy Moments: Mobile Reshapes the Purchase

For today’s constantly connected consumers, shopping never sleeps. Whether making an everyday purchase or researching a big-ticket item, we reflexively turn to mobile. These I-want-to-buy moments are important for consumers, and they’re critical for brands. Are you winning these micro-moments?

Giana was in her local drugstore, trying to understand why two brands of the same type of treatment differed in price by $15. (The more expensive option coming in a smaller tube, no less.) “I thought there had to be a difference,” she recalls. So she pulled out her smartphone and searched for product reviews, right there in the store aisle. She ended up going with the higher-rated, yet higher-priced product. Looking back, Giana realizes that had she not had her smartphone, she probably would have bought the cheaper one.

Erica was at the airport, killing time before a flight, when she searched for a mortgage calculator. She wanted to figure out whether she and her husband could really afford a new home. That first smartphone search led to many more in stolen moments throughout her day as she researched the purchase step by step. “Being able to do it in the moment makes it more fun and less daunting,” says Erica. “I can space it out throughout my day.”

Read more about Giana’s and Erica’s stories in our forthcoming micro-moments retail research.

Article on Google Think