Arbitron: More Apple iPhone users turn to mobile apps for commerce than Android users

According to data compiled by Arbitron, more Apple iPhone users than Android users turn to mobile apps for shopping. The stats reveal that more than two-thirds (67.5%) of iPhone users open up an app when it comes time to do some shopping, as opposed to the 43.9% of Android users who do the same thing.  Shoppers sporting an iPhone tend to spend more time shopping using mobile apps than their fellow shoppers using an Android model. On average, the typical Android user spends 87.6 minutes a month during 29.5 shopping sessions reaching for a mobile app to to satisfy their need to spend. Apple users spend much more time each month, 105.3 minutes on average over 35 sessions, shopping on a mobile app.

So which app is being used the most by those shopping via a smartphone? It is auction site eBay with a 14.3% market share of these mobile shoppers, followed by Amazon's 13% While that might seem close, eBay user spent much more time each month on eBay's app than on Amazon's (108.4 minutes per month vs. 40 minutes per month).

But when smartphone users decided to shop using their smartphone's browser, it was a different story. In that case, it was Amazon on top with a 34.7% market share while eBay dropped to third with an 18% slice of the pie. But perhaps due to the fact that many shoppers would rather not use the browser on their smartphone, the number of minutes per month that the average mobile shopper spent at Amazon's web site was only 19.8 over 5.7 sessions per month. When you compare this to the figures from those using Amazon's app, it shows how much more mobile shoppers prefer using apps than punching in a URL and navigating the browser on their handset.

So here is a tip to the retailing executives who are perusing this article. If your stores do not offer a mobile app, your next call better be to a developer or else you risk getting lost when it comes to mobile commerce. And if this does turn out to be a helpful tip, remember where you heard it from!

source: Arbitron