Correction: Bryan Leach is the founder of Ibotta. This article incorrectly described his relationship to the Denver-based company.
Retailers across the country reported spikes in online traffic from mobile devices during peak days for Christmas shopping.
Some, like Wal-Mart, reported mobile traffic making up as much as 70 percent of website visits. According to IBM's U.S. Retail Black Friday Report, smartphones and tablets combined for 52 percent of traffic online. It was the first time that mobile devices were used more than personal computers.
Shoppers are using mobile devices -- generally categorized as smartphones and tablets -- much more frequently. IBM's study pointed to one in four online purchases being made on mobile devices, but the role of such technology when it comes to shopping doesn't stop there.
Field Agent, a Fayetteville-based agency focused on data collection from consumers, released a survey in August breaking down shopping habits of multiple-channel shoppers, those who are making purchases in store and online. For the survey, the firm looked at 2,300 shoppers and broke down online activity, including how and when they use mobile devices to make purchases.
"What we're seeing is that mobile is a shopping tool, more than a ... purchase device," Field Agent co-founder and chief business development officer Henry Ho said.
During the Northwest Arkansas Technology Summit in August, Wal-Mart chief information officer Karenann Terrell said 65 percent of the retailer's customers use smartphones. About 50 percent of those customers are using devices to assist as they shop. For customers who do use their smartphones or tablets, about 46 percent use them for price comparison and 35 percent to find product reviews.
Research conducted by Field Agent in August suggests similar data. Online and mobile shoppers generally are broken down into customers who want to save and those who want to know.
Shoppers looking for savings are using mobile devices to search for coupons or compare prices among retailers. Those who want to know are looking at product reviews or research.
Electronic accessories (51 percent) were the most popular items for customers looking to know more about a product. Children's toys (51 percent) were the items most often purchased by those in search of savings. Both categories are regarded as the most popular among holiday shoppers.
Gibu Thomas, senior vice president of mobile and digital at Wal-Mart, said at a media presentation during Wal-Mart's annual shareholders meeting in June that the company was exploring options for how to draw more traffic and dollars from customers dependent on mobile technology. Before the Christmas shopping season, the retailer revamped its mobile-shopping application, created in-store maps and made the website more mobile-friendly.
Wal-Mart's Saving Catcher rebate program is another strategy the company implemented this year to accommodate mobile shoppers. Customers can scan their receipts and, if cheaper prices are found, Wal-Mart refunds money to a Wal-Mart gift card.
"We like to say e-commerce brought the store to the Web, but mobile brings the Web to the store," Thomas said when unveiling Savings Catcher.
Wal-Mart still does more than 90 percent of its business in stores, so finding ways to use online technology to get customers inside of supercenters or Neighborhood Markets remains important, retail experts said. Bryan Leach, co-founder of Ibotta , a Denver-based shopping app that helps push shoppers into certain stores in exchange for rebates, noted Wal-Mart's Savings Catcher as an innovate way to use mobile as a means of building store traffic.
Most recently, Ibotta reported $15.1 million in rebates for users, whose average age is 28. That age makes them "25 years younger than the paper-coupon or print-at-home-coupon crowd," Leach said. "The game is becoming not just how you influence consumers to make transactions right then and there, but how you use mobile along the path to purchase. How do you get them back in the store and shopping with you?
"What Wal-Mart has done is create a closed-payment loop," Leach added. "Those savings turn into credit at Wal-Mart which gets you back into Wal-Mart. So the big trend is away from coupons. It's about creating rewards that can be earmarked in the currency of the retailer. That's the future."
Whether customers are seeking rebates or looking to do research, mobile represents an area that retailers must pay attention to, experts in the field said. No longer are customers doing research at home on a laptop and then heading off to the store armed with that knowledge. Decisions are being made as consumers are looking at products on the shelf or while en route to make a purchase.
"As we think about the shopper's path to purchase, it's no longer so neat and clean," Ho said. "It's all integrated. You can research on the bus, in the store. It's not just limited to the home. Mobile basically changes everything."
SundayMonday Business on 12/14/2014