Asia Pacific consumers are embracing the convenience of mobile shopping with nearly half of consumers (45.6%) having made a purchase using their smartphone in the three months preceding the survey.
This is among the findings of a survey from Mastercard, which found that convenience was the main factor motivating consumers to shop via their smartphone. In addition to using their mobile phones to make purchases, savvy shoppers in the region are also using it to compare prices between physical and online stores.
Close to half (44.5%) of respondents have conducted price comparisons, with a similar proportion (44.2%) also stating that they have conducted research online prior to making a purchase in-store.
The results are based on interviews that took place between October and December 2014, with a minimum of 500 people aged 18-64, in each of the 14 markets surveyed. The markets were: Thailand, China, Japan, Korea, Australia, Malaysia, New Zealand, Taiwan, Vietnam, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Singapore, India and the Philippines.
Overall, consumers from China (70.1%), India (62.9%) and Taiwan (62.6%) are the most likely to shop using their smartphones.
In terms of the biggest growth in mobile shopping, Taiwan and India lead the region with the number of people shopping on smartphones more than doubling over two years – Taiwan went from 28.2% in 2012 to 62.6% in 2014 while India went from 30.3% in 2012 to 62.9% in 2014. Malaysia also recorded significant growth – up from 25.4% in 2012 to 45.6% in 2014.
Nearly half of the respondents across Asia Pacific (49.5%) cited convenience as the most compelling reason for shopping on their smartphone. Other motivating factors include the ability to shop on the go (43.9%) and the growing availability of apps that make it easy to shop online (39.5%).