Demand of Smartphone is continuously increasing year-over-year and it’s expected that sales of the device will surpass one billion figure by 2014. Users are more relying on their mobile devices for product search and verification. Despite of this, users are reluctant to do shopping through their mobile devices. Indeed, it’s true. A research analysis firm—Nielsen—has reportedly stated that just 7% folks in the U.S. have accepted that shopping through mobile device is the ‘easiest’ way.
Smartphone penetration is higher in developed countries compared to emerging countries. Now, mobile handset is not just a “calling and texting” device for users. They are smartly using the device for carrier, job, research and more purposes. Surprisingly, folks in the U.S. are still preferred to do “In-Store” purchase compare to ‘Online PC Purchase’ and ‘Mobile Purchase’.
It’s pretty clear from the above graph, 77% folks in the country believe that traditional In-Store shopping is still safest way to purchase any products. Besides, 22% are more likely to do ‘Online PC Purchase’. It seems somewhat weird, despite the presence of numbers of online retail giants like Amazon, a meager percentage of folks across the country are considering the online shopping through the PC and Mobile is the ‘safest’ mode.
In terms of easiest purchase, 68% folks of the country believe online purchase is easiest, followed by mobile and In-store purchase with 27% and 20% acceptance respectively. In the U.S., 69% folks have accepted that In-Store purchase is most reliable, while purchase through Mobile and Online PC have got 11% and 28% support respectively.
I think, the security vulnerability might be a prime concern. Previously, I have already discussed that why users have lack of trust on mobile devices especially to use bank apps. At present, 8 out of 10 bank apps are vulnerable in security concern. Hackers and Malware attacks are continuously increasing day-over day. Android has reported 3,325% malware growth in the last year. You might have heard numbers of horror stories related to mobile hacking. At the end of the last month, I have described how a small escrow company lost millions of dollars just by a little fault of its employee.
Now, device manufacturers and service providers are quite conscious about the security vulnerability and they are working hard. However, it will take some time, but the time is not so far when users will consider mobile device as one of the safest mode for purchasing the products.
