Moms are increasingly using their mobile devices to do everything such as price comparing, shopping and researching products, according to a new report from Alliance Data Retail Services.

The “Alliance Data Retail Services Mobile Moms survey” looked at the wide variety of tasks that consumers are turning to their mobile devices to complete. The survey also digs into which channels moms are most interested in receiving coupons and offers from.

“Mobile provides that impulse opportunity to shop,” said Melody Gintert, senior manager of market intelligence at Alliance Data Retail Services, Columbus, OH.

“When they are in-store, they are using it as a price comparison tool, and at home it is all about convenience,” she said.

Mobile moms
The study was conducted in March and includes responses from 439 online surveys, which were collected through Alliance Data Retail Services’ eCommunity database of private label credit cardholders. In order to participate in the survey, respondents had to have at least one child.

The survey points to mobile as being an influencer in the shopping habits of mothers, who typically guide a family’s purchasing decisions.

Marketers go after this demographic to not only drive incremental sales, but also build brand affinity and trigger high frequency purchases.

According to the survey, more than half of moms who own a mobile device use it at least once a week as part of their shopping experience. Thirty-five percent of moms use their mobile devices daily to aid in their shopping.

Additionally, 58 percent of consumers surveyed have used their mobile device to take pictures of products that they want to buy later.

Similarly, 38 percent of consumers said that they had taken a picture of a shelf tag to compare prices later.

When it comes to why moms prefer to use their mobile device, 29 percent of survey participants pick their phones to shop because it is easy and fast.

Twenty-seven percent of consumers picked price comparisons as the No. 1 reason why they used their smartphone to shop.

Ninety-six percent of the moms surveyed said that they like to receive SMS and email messages from their favorite brands. This is split up into SMS with 52 percent and email with 44 percent.

Furthermore, 36 percent of moms used apps to shop, and 19 percent interacted with 2D bar codes or QR codes.

As far as verticals go, clothing was the No. 1 category that moms use their mobile devices to research or shop for. Fifty-six percent of moms use their mobile device to make purchasing decisions with clothing.

Beauty was the No. 2 category with 47 percent of moms responding that they shopped for related products via their devices.

Household products, toys and jewelry were other top categories where mobile aided shopping.

Electronics stores and big-box retailers were the top stores that moms were most likely to use their mobile devices in, likely to price compare.

Engaged users
Twenty-two percent of the moms surveyed said that they would choose to give up time with their kids over not having their mobile device for one month.

Twenty-five percent of moms would give up all television and movies in order to keep their mobile device.

Interestingly though, mobile is a low-desire platform for consumers to shop from when asked to pick a preferred shopping method.

Only 11 percent of consumers chose mobile as the only way that they would ideally shop.

Fifty-five percent of consumers answered online from a computer and 32 picked to shop in-store. The remaining two percent of moms preferred to shop from catalogs.

Since mobile is not the preferred channel for driving sales, marketers should look to leverage mobile to enhance the other shopping methods.

“The takeaway advice is mobile shopping has to be part of the experience,” Ms. Gintert said.

“The products that they are showing online have to be presented in a slick and realistic way,” she said.

“Marketers need to realize the immediacy, the importance of it and the expectation of it.”

Final Take
Lauren Johnson is associate reporter on Mobile Commerce Daily, New York