Research Provides New Insight into Mobile Shopping in 2013, Uncovers Opportunities for Retailers

VANCOUVER, British Columbia, Jan. 7, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- Mobidia Technology, Inc., a leading provider of mobile analytics, today released new research prepared for the company by Yankee Group, a leading analyst firm, to offer new insights into mobile shopping application usage.

The research shows that mobile shopping continues to grow at a rapid pace, with an increasing number of mobile shoppers embracing internet retailer apps, social shopping apps, and brick-and-mortar retail apps to enhance their shopping experience. However, usage of these apps varies widely depending on many factors, including the type and quality of the mobile app.

"Mobidia's application usage and engagement metrics provide a view into mobile shopping trends with a level of detail previously unavailable to retailers," said Chris Hill, vice president of marketing at Mobidia. "As the mobile shopping market continues to grow, our data can help retail marketers become better informed about how their customers and competitors are using mobile shopping applications."

A full analysis of U.S. mobile shopping application usage in 2013 is now available as a whitepaper at Mobidia; highlights of the identified trends are available below:

• Social shopping applications such as Shopkick and Groupon drove the highest level of application engagement at 49 percent.
  • Internet retailers such as Amazon and eBay followed closely with 47 percent.
  • Traditional brick-and-mortar retailers such as Walmart and Kohl's trailed with 43 percent, but had the largest distribution of engagement results with some companies well above the average.
• Apps offering customer services to enhance the mobile shopping experience drove more engagement. For example, Kohl's and H&M engagement - at 73 percent and 61 percent respectively - was higher than most apps in all segments. The apps for both of these companies offer features other than just purchasing options, such as inventory checks, rewards, and look books.

Customer Engagement of Brick-and-Mortar Mobile Shopping Apps, 2013

(Photo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20140107/SF40289-a)

Source: Mobidia

The impact of app quality and experience is also apparent when engagement is reviewed on an OS basis.  Many mobile apps in this study offer different experiences and qualities in their Android and iOS versions and the engagement metric results clearly show iOS apps benefiting from better applications.

Customer Engagement of Selected Mobile Shopping Apps by OS, 2013

(Photo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20140107/SF40289-b)

Source: Mobidia

"Mobile shopping is all about mobile applications and the data clearly shows the correlation between high app quality with enhanced user experiences and higher shopper engagement and usage," said Sheryl Kingstone, director of enterprise services at Yankee Group. "Retailers that want to drive more engagement with mobile shoppers need to understand what apps are being used – not just downloaded – and the features of those apps that are driving the increased usage. Tracking and measuring these metrics on a regular basis and benchmarking the results to the competition is key to a retailer's success"    

With a global set of data provided by millions of smartphone users around the world, Mobidia is able to provide mobile retailers and others interested in mobile application usage with detailed insights into specific application usage. The data offers insights into application penetration, engagement and usage in minutes and unique sessions in more than 50 different countries.

The complete whitepaper outlining the results of this mobile shopping analysis is available at Mobidia's website.

Note to Editor:

Mobidia analyzed data collected during 2013 from millions of global smartphone users. This data was collected on a strictly anonymous and optional basis from millions of users who have downloaded Mobidia's smartphone application, My Data Manager. The data sample represents Android and iOS smartphone users in the U.S. The engagement metric referenced is represented by weekly active users as a percentage of monthly active users.

About Mobidia Technology, Inc.

Mobidia is a leading mobile analytics provider with the largest global sample of smartphone and tablet users. Mobidia's mobile analytics and metrics platform provides unique insights into mobile usage trends on mobile applications and mobile networks. Real usage from real users on both cellular and Wi-Fi networks provides a comprehensive and unique understanding of what people do and value in the mobile world.

Mobidia is headquartered in Vancouver, British Columbia with local presence in the U.S., Europe and Asia. For more information, visit www.mobidia.com or call 604-304-8640.

SOURCE Mobidia Technology, Inc.