Market statistics: “Out with the Paper Shopping List, in with the Smartphone”

We, mobile and internet professionals, too often follow only news and stats etc. of our own industry and thus can’t see signs of market and other developments outside our core businesses until those signs becomes actions and acts and then we start furiously tries to catch up and to dive – sometimes too late – into sea of new opportunities. Uh, that was long complex sentence and I’m not sure if I can even follow it ..

Anyway, one of my colleagues forwarded me one press release from the Nielsen, one of the leading companies providing market research and statistics. Forwarded press release was very far from the ones I usually read but the kind of I should be following and reading even more than mobile and internet industry related ones.

In Nielsen Company’s Retail 2015 Forecast (shortly: about the future development of consumer packaged goods industry, ie physical things and stuff we do buy) press release (and in the report itself) one of the major conclusions and predictions is that catchy sentence I am using as title of this posting: “Out with the Paper Shopping List, in with the Smartphone.”.

By 2015, as Nielsen predicts, smartphones will be primary enabler of consumer shopping engagements. To say it more simple way: people will use mobile phones (smartphones) to search for the information, compare prices and use other services to make decisions before purchases as well as help them to shop better, cheaper and easier. And naturally to shop (=buy) too.

When been talking with clients, retail companies have been very interesting about the possibilities with mobile phones and mobile internet, and applications too, but still pondering if the services what they want can be “fitted” into mobile phones. Sometimes them cannot, but isn’t retail companies’ web sites basically about publishing information? Of their services and products, including texts, images, videos. Simple basic digital content added with purchasing possibilities.

Adding puchasing possibilities (possibility to pay by using commonly used payment methods) is not so big deal anymore and even more complex services, like customer’s account management etc., can be completed fairly straight forwarded way without losing the usability in the mobile phone. Technology and users are there, and  consumers are willing to shop!, but retailers are not yet, in this mobile internet space… some will be soon …

Wanna get your shop or store into the hands of the consumers? There’s only one right answer and when you have figured it out, give us a call…