Just a few short years ago, there was a serious stigma associated with online shopping. As fears regarding credit card fraud decrease and the ubiquity of online services grows, this sentiment is rapidly becoming a thing of the past. A recent Ipsos Reid poll put together on behalf of PayPal indicates consumers are willing to consider mobile shopping, even while commuting on public transit.
The trend, dubbed commuter commerce, is a new phenomenon that polls show 14 percent of people engage in. In addition, a total of 75 percent of commuters would consider making a wide range of purchases if the services were easily available. Mobile commerce can include anything from purchasing movie tickets, to clothing or shoes.
Respondents who reported making purchases while commuting did so in a variety of ways, with more than half of that group saying they’ve purchased tickets (62 percent), clothing (62 percent), gifts (55 percent), food, (53 percent) and games (50 percent) while commuting.
Over 70 percent of those polled agreed they would like to browse their favourite stores while commuting, even if they wouldn’t necessarily make purchases, simply because commuter commerce is a big time saver. Limited cell reception and the perceived insecurity of mobile transactions were cited as the biggest reasons people weren’t currently shopping on their commutes.
The survey showed that over 20 percent of Canadians are regular public transit users, and of those, over 75 percent have commutes that are longer than 30 minutes. This presents a huge opportunity for mobile retailers if they can present reliable and secure options for their customers while on the go.
[source]Newswire[/source]
