Location-based ad targeting firm/network 1020 Placecast has been putting out research and powerful anecdotal interviews with women as part of an "alert shopper" series. Now the company is releasing survey research done with Harris Interactive that addresses mobile shopping behavior.

The survey (n=2,029) was conducted online in July, with US adults, and "measured consumer sentiment towards using mobile devices as it relates to shopping, sales promotions and impulse purchases." At the top level, here's what Placecast found:

Most people make "impulse purchases" with some regularity: "Nearly a quarter of adults owning cell phones [22%] make this type of impulse purchase at least once per week or more often. Among women with cell phones ages 18 to 44, 27% report making at least one impulse purchase a week; among men 18 - 34, this number rises to 31%."


For this impulse purchase group:

About 2-in-5 of these adults would like to receive alerts about sales for:

-Movie/event tickets (43%)
-Weather information (39%)
-Clearance or liquidation sales (37%)

About another 3-in-10 of these adults would want to be alerted about:

-Pizza (31%)
-Clothes (30%)
-Fast food (27%)

About one quarter would want to be notified about:

-Electronics (25%)
-Music (24%)
-Happy hour specials or bar and night club offers (21%)

The apparent bottom line here is that lots of people are interested in getting LBS and deals information on their mobile phones via alerts. The chart above reveals the hierarchy of shopper interests around alerts.

Last year HipCricket released survey findings that are broadly consistent with those above around offers and mobile coupons. And in our survey work we've found that about 42% of mobile users are interested in offers or deals from retailers or merchants from whom they opt-in to receive information.

The numbers are pretty consistent that there's a sizable audience, approaching 50% of users, interested in mobile deals/offers/alerts. The Placecast survey argues that these people are also open to "impulse purchase" influence via their mobile devices. 


[internet2go]