Smartphones have had a profound impact on society, and are continually changing the way people shop. According to the Remote Payments Study from PYMNTS, mobile shopping is changing the way people discover new products to buy. Only 32.2% of respondents found their most recent purchases in a store, compared to 47.6% who made the discovery online.
Consumers may be eliminating that discovery process altogether though. Nearly 42% of survey participants said they know what they want to purchase before they browse for new products.
The follow-through is strong for smartphone purchases. The survey found 63.8% of consumers who made a purchase on their phones initially found the items online. Over one-quarter (25.7%) of shoppers said they normally use a mobile device to pay for their purchases, whether in-store or online.
Voice assistants, such as Alexa and Siri, are also changing the face of shopping. More than one in four (28%) respondents had a voice-activated device, and 27% of them used those devices to make a purchase within the last week. Google Assistant has had some of the most recent advancements in voice-initiated shopping, thanks to partnerships with Mastercard and Walmart.
Consumers had higher satisfaction rates with mobile-based payments than they did with traditional payment methods. Debit and credit cards were the most popular means of mobile payments, representing 37.1% and 28.7% of transactions, respectively. Mobile wallets trailed far behind, covering only 3.2% of purchases through Apple Pay, Samsung Pay, Walmart Pay, and others.