Absolute Gadget

Is it becoming more attractive to shop via your mobile phone? While buying goods or services over the counter is still the most popular, mobile buying is fast becoming a popular pastime according to a new report by BT.

Nowadays people can use their smartphones to get on the internet, watch television or social network while sitting on the beach or on the train - so it seems it was only a matter of time before the idea of cutting stress and time out of out lives by shopping via a mobile phone became a hit.

According to a survey, over 45 per cent of mobile phone users in the UK have looked at products or services online, while one in three have searched, price checked and reviewed a product online and one in five have actually made a purchase.

There is currently a small audience at the moment buying music, games and tickets, but there is also a developing interest in buying gifts, household products and electronics over the mobile. Who knows, you may be buying your new plasma while sitting on a bus on the way home from work!

But the report warned businesses that customer expectations of mobile shopping could outstrip businesses ability to provide online retailing services over the mobile internet.

One in five respondents thought that shops should have sites specifically for mobile internet users. While 39 per cent said they should be easy to navigate and a quarter said they needed to load quickly.

"Business's are fast becoming threatened by a sweep of mobile phone users taking a lump sum of their profit" said the report. The telephone company also suggested that it could be a way for shops to increase sales in-store. This would be by introducing an intranet channel over a store's wireless network to give smartphone-carrying buyers expert advice. Businesses using this method would become more green said the report.

Research forecasts gathered by Juniper Research has claimed that mobile transactions will increase by 700 percent worldwide, with individual transactions costing between £1.53 - £2.56.

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