Mobile Shopping In Strange Places

As Americans, we know we’re obsessive about our smartphones, but a recent round of studies has given us new insight into just how attached we’ve become.

On July 11, California-based mobile card payment validator Jumio released a report that found that Americans frequently use their smartphones in the shower, at church and even in the bedroom.  Just one day later, SeeWhy released more new data through Wired Magazine supporting this phenomenon.

SeeWhy, a Boston-based company that helps companies convert buyers who have abandoned online shopping carts, surveyed more than 1,000 U.S. tablet owners to uncover where they’ve made online purchases. It found that 10 percent of survey takers had made a purchase while using the restroom.

Unsurprisingly, the bathroom wasn’t the top response. Forty-four percent of survey takers said they have used their smartphone in their living room. This was followed by the bedroom, kitchen and yard, which captured 23 percent, 19 percent and 14 percent of the responses, respectively.

However, this isn’t the first time that researchers have attempted to uncover just how many shoppers make purchases when in the bathroom.

In 2012, 11Mark, a Virginia-based integrated marketing firm, surveyed 1,000 Americans to see how Americans used smartphones “behind closed stalls.”

According to its research, 75 percent of Americans have used their mobile phones in the bathroom. 11Mark also broke down its findings across gender lines, revealing that 30 percent of men and 20 percent of women reported this action. Of these respondents, 13 percent of men and 7 percent of women have made a purchase while in the restroom, the survey said.

Broken down by age, Generation Y was the most likely to report making purchasing decisions in the bathroom, with 16 percent of respondents admitting to this action. Ten percent of Generation X, 6 percent of Baby Boomers and 2 percent of the silent generation also indicated they had made a purchase in this setting.

For more data about growing consumer smartphone habit or to learn which brand of smartphone is most likely to be used in the stall, download the full 11Mark report here.