Harris Interactive: Mobile shopping users are interested in SMS marketing

The maturity of the mobile phone market has given consumers powerful weapons in their hands, and they make full use of the functions of these weapons to meet many of their life needs.

According to a February 2012 survey from Placecast and Harris Interactive, 1 in 5 mobile phone users have shopped through their mobile phones, and the proportion of smartphone users is relatively higher. However, the study shows that users use their mobile phones more to assist in shopping. Half of smartphone users said they use the GPS and map functions of their phones to find store addresses.

Overall, American consumers are becoming more and more accepting of the concept of shopping on mobile phones. The survey found that the number of users who think that shopping on mobile phones is somewhat important has increased from 30% in 2010 to 38% in 2012. Despite the increase, the majority of users, 62%, still think that shopping on mobile phones is not important to them.

The percentage of users interested in receiving promotional text messages is also increasing. In February 2012, 31% of users who had not received mobile marketing text messages said they were somewhat interested in these messages. 10% said they were very interested in SMS marketing messages. Marketers who can meet these user needs may be able to drive mobile e-commerce opportunities, including driving in-store sales growth.

eMarketer predicts that the mobile phone penetration rate in the United States will reach 76.8% in 2012, and by 2016, smartphones will account for 74% of US mobile phone users.