Through Comparison, Codes and Coupons, Smartphone Users Save

Will you use your smartphone to comparison shop this holiday season?

If so, you’re in the fast-growing minority of consumers who are using their mobile devices to save through mobile couponing, bar code scanning, price comparison and any other shopping-friendly scheme they can get their hands on.

How big a role will mobile offers play in the final months of 2012? Surveys by Yankee Group and Pricegrabber clue us in in this PYMNTS.com Data Point.

Comparing Year-Over-Year Results

According to the Yankee Group data, only 14 percent of consumers surveyed in 2011 indicated that they used in-app bar code mobile coupons, while that number jumped to 26 percent in 2012. Similarly, 18 percent said they received SMS-based coupons a year ago, while this year’s tally rang in at 24 percent. This year, 43 percent of retailers said they’d use location-based data to send out offers over the next two years.

‘Tis The Season To Download Shopping Apps

A Pricegrabber survey takes a look at how people plan to use their smartphones to shop this holiday season, and the numbers underlie the importance of mobile marketing. Nearly one-third of smartphone owners said they plan to download a shopping app this season, and 63 percent of that group said they’d download a bar code-scanning app. Seventy percent said they’d download a coupon app, while two-third indicated they’d put a comparison-shopping app their phone.

To see more data on how mobile bar codes and coupons will be used this Holliday season, read this Mobile Commerce Daily piece.