Discount shopping goes mobile

There’s no denying it; making purchases online via a smartphone is a growing trend. Since Christmas, retailers have reported a huge increase in customers using smartphones to compare prices and snap up sales offers online.

The mobile channel has vaulted itself into position to become the dominant way in which consumers search, share and shop, which is yet further testimony to the savvy shopper culture that has come of age.

More than 4 billion people (over half the planet) have mobile phones – an increasing number of which are internet-enabled smart phones that work as powerfully as computers do. A recent Ofcom report claims that 27% of adults are now smartphone users, and that shopping via a mobile phone has become as common as shopping from a computer at work, with many people shopping using multiple devices.

In a survey conducted earlier this year by customer experience analytics firm Foresee, 49% of people indicated that they had accessed a retailer’s website using a mobile phone (compared to 32% in 2010 and 23% in 2009). An additional 28% indicate that they plan to use their mobile phone to access a retailer’s website, mobile website, or mobile app in the future.

Most interesting are the different ways that consumers are using the mobile app to help them with their shopping. Owners of tablets and smartphones are increasingly using their devices to check product information and compare prices while inside shops. Price comparison is emerging as a major mobile shopping activity, and the fact that you can browse for rival prices while in a competitor’s store has massive implications for the continued rise in popularity of the shopping app.

Also gathering momentum is the trend for consumers to use their smartphones to search for discounts and deals on in-store prices while out shopping. With bargain-hunting becoming more prevalent in UK shopping culture, it makes sense that consumers should use all available means to get the best deal in the marketplace.

If you offer discounts to your workforce as an employee benefit, it’s a logical step to expect that you should also be able to offer them the means to do this on the move.

In short, more than three-quarters of all online shoppers are either already using or plan to use their phones for retail purposes.

Given the widespread and growing usage of mobile websites, having an app to maximise your employees’ usage of their employee discounts programme could add a crucial element to their engagement with the scheme. Aspects of shopping such as searching for store locations, researching product information and price comparison would be immediately easier with an app, not to mention the implications of being able to order vouchers and cards on the move, so they can do this as soon as they think of it, rather than having to be next to a computer. Ordering SMS vouchers would be obtainable at the click of a finger, upon which users would receive the SMS voucher direct to the same phone in their hand in an instant.

Particularly for offline sectors of your workforce who don’t get the chance to shop from their computers at work, an app could revolutionise their shopping experience.

Having a provider that not only has price comparison enabled on its product search, but even factors in the discount for your employees’ convenience is a brilliant way to engage your workforce with their programme.

A whole world of price and product information, on-demand shopping and topping up gift cards quickly and conveniently, is now available at your fingertips and in your pocket. The mobile- empowered consumer is one that is being harnessed by retailers in their droves – the demand is there for an instant shopping experience on the move, and by gum are retailers responding to the demand.

A shopping discounts scheme needs to keep up with the trend. A mobile app that allows your employees to do all of the above means they are plugged in to your benefits programme around the clock, wherever they are. It makes life easier for them, enabling them to take advantage of discounts at an unprecedented level of convenience.

For you, the barriers to engagement couldn’t be lower.

If you’d like to chat with us about Asperity’s brand new mobile discounts app, call us now on 020 7229 0349 or email benefits@asperity.co.uk.