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A significant number of people are comfortable shopping and paying for items through their mobile devices, according to a new report from mobile media firm JiWire.
JiWire’s latest Mobile Audience Insights Report (PDF) found that 79 percent of 5,000 people surveyed are OK paying online via their cell phones or tablets.
Though most of those polled are still making relatively small purchases (less than $100), 50 percent said they’re comfortable spending more than $100 using a cell phone, while almost 20 percent said they’re OK buying things worth more than $500.
JiWire
Beyond paying for items, more consumers are also researching products via their mobile devices. JiWire found that 71 percent of those polled had researched future purchases on their phone or tablet before buying the item. Among those, 31 percent later bought the item in a store, 40 percent bought it online through a PC, and 20 percent bought it directly from their mobile device.
The most popular items researched and bought through mobile devices included regular retail products and travel and entertainment services.
The survey also discovered that location-based ads for local deals are proving effective, with 72 percent of those polled buying items through local deals and 62 percent sharing those local deals with their friends. Though the younger crowd is typically thought of as more mobile savvy, this trend was fairly consistent across a variety of age ranges, according to JiWire.
“As mobile technology evolves and people begin to rely more on their smartphones and tablets, location-based services and content have truly become a necessity for the on-the-go audience,” David Staas, senior vice president of marketing at JiWire, said in a statement.
JiWire compiled its Mobile Audience Insights Report by polling customers and culling data from mobile ad requests collected from January through March.
