SHOPPING THROUGH SMART PHONE ON RISE

An online study among smartphone users has found that 65 per cent of them use their phones to make a retail purchase, and 81 per cent of them frequently use social media to seek advice before making a purchase. As many as 78 per cent of smartphone users also frequently use their phones in a store to compare products, says a study conducted among 400 smartphone and social media users in the country. The study, carried out by First Data Corp-ICICI Merchant Services, was carried out in 10 countries including India in April among 4,000 people. It further finds that almost four-fifths of smartphone users have at least one retailer app on their phone. Given the unique proliferation of mobile phones in the country, an increasingly large number of Indians are turning to mobile phones as their first daily touch point to the internet, Nitish Asthana, executive director at First Data Corp, told PTI. First Data is a global technology and payments processing leader. In a lot of cases, the number of users of mobile devices is growing faster than web traffic. For an e-commerce company to keep pace with market trends, the mobile phone has become an important conduit, he said. Noting that consumers here are going through a fundamental shift in their primary channel of Internet access, he said this channel is increasingly becoming the smartphones. The study also finds that despite security concerns, online banking is on the rise in the country with more and more consumers asking for online banking services. This is clear from the fact that over half the respondents feel that online debit card and credit card purchases are secure (56 and 51 per cent, respectively), while 49 per cent feel that using their mobiles to make a payment at a store is also secure. Though 66 per cent feel that protecting their personal information and privacy is a growing concern, over 55 per cent are willing to share their interests with retailers to receive customised offers and deals. According to the study, almost three-quarters of respondents expect their banks to provide online banking services and 66 per cent expect a mobile phone app from their bank and higher 68 per cent of smartphone users have downloaded their bank's app onto their phones.