4G users more likely to shop from their smartphone: new study
New research has shown that over two thirds of 4G users feel that faster access to the internet encourages them to make more purchases from their smartphone.
The latest consumer research from ‘voice of the customer’ specialist eDigitalResearch and online retail body IMRG reveals that 4G users are much more engaged with the online and digital retail sphere than their 3G smartphone counterparts.
While 54% of 4G users polled said they had shopped online from their mobile compared to just 32% of non-4G smartphone owners, 70% of 4G users said they had browsed retail websites from their mobile compared to 48% of non-4G users.
In addition, just 2% of smartphone owners stated that they made mobile sites or apps their first port of call when they shopped and browsed, compared to 11% of 4G users.
According to the results, around one in five consumers now own a 4G enabled smartphone device – 62% of whom have used 4G to access the internet when browsing from their mobile. This compares to just 9% of consumers who had access to the technology this time last year.
Derek Eccleston, commercial director at eDigitalResearch, said: “As a nation, we were relatively slow to adopt 4G compared to other countries. However, now it’s here, these results demonstrate that the technology is likely to have a real impact on our shopping and browsing habits as UK networks charge ahead with their planned roll out to more locations and more users – mobile is likely to become even more pivotal for retailers with more of us shopping and browsing from our smartphones, both inside the home and out and about.”
The study found that awareness of 4G with UK consumers is extremely high following the roll out of faster mobile internet speeds by various networks – just 11% of the 2,000 consumer surveyed said that they had not heard of 4G before. Whilst many felt that the introduction of 4G would lead to costly phone contracts and higher data charges, one third of those surveyed felt that 4G had more advantages than disadvantages. This figure increased to 69% for those that had used the technology before.
Tina Spooner, chief information officer at IMRG, added: “With over half of 4G users having shopped via their smartphones, compared with around a third of their 3G counterparts, it is clear that faster access brings a higher level of customer engagement via mobile. During the mid-2000’s we saw a similar trend in overall e-retail, when the adoption of faster broadband connections resulted in a surge in online sales.
“Mobile has become an integral part of the online shopping journey, with a third of UK e-retail sales now coming via smartphone and tablet devices. Although tablets currently account for the lion’s share of m-retail, as 4G adoption increases and more users sign up to high-speed mobile internet services, there is little doubt we will see an increasing number of consumers shopping on the move.”
