The number of shoppers using mobile devices to make purchases has increased by 10% in just two years (from 25% in 2012), according to an ongoing shopper-behavior study by The Integer Group and M/A/R/C Research.

Increased mobile purchasing by Hispanics (up 11% year over year), Asian-Americans (up 10% year over year), and the 15-34 and 35-49 age brackets (up 10% and up 12% year over year, respectively) were largely responsible for this increase.

“Shoppers of all ages and demographics are using their mobile phones in stores and to make purchases,” said Craig Elston, senior vice president of insight and strategy at The Integer Group. “Marketers should consider not whether their target uses mobile, but how their target uses mobile.”

In addition to becoming more prevalent as a purchase channel, the use of mobile is expediting the shopping process. The study shows 15% of shoppers said that typically only a “couple of minutes” passed between discovering a product (on their mobile device) and purchase. Males were more likely than females (17% and 13%, respectively) to make these quick-turn purchases, and mobile-savvy Hispanics reported the shortest time mobile shopping (47% of purchases were made within a few hours of product discovery).

This acceleration of purchase is indicative of what shoppers look for when using their mobile devices in store or for purchase: information and convenience. In-store shoppers use their mobile devices to compare prices (39%) and look up product reviews (25%). This mirrors their priorities for shopping on their smartphones: spending as little as possible (55%) and finding the best-quality items (49%).

Additional findings from the digital/mobile issue of Integer’s The Checkout include: 60% of shoppers have never purchased baby products online and say they never will; 47% of shoppers have never purchased food or beverage products online; fewer than one in 10 shoppers will download a retailer’s app; and despite the fact that 34% of shoppers make a list on their mobile phones prior to shopping, only 8% of shoppers do so using a retailer's list-making tool.

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