A new report from The Nielsen Company offers a mobile screen shot of how consumers use tablets and smartphones for shopping-related activities and also what mobile features are most important to consumers using mobile devices to shop.

It finds 72% of the 3,734 respondents who had used a smartphone or tablet for mobile shopping, paying or banking in the past 30 days say they research items on their smartphones before buying. That was the most frequently chosen response.

The report, Nielsen’s fourth-quarter 2015 Mobile Wallet Report, also finds 70% check the price of an item, ranking that shopping activity No. 2 on their smartphones. That is followed by 60% who use a store locator on their smartphones to find a store where they can buy their product of choice.

When it comes to tablets, the greatest percentage (66%) of shoppers research items on their tablets before purchasing, followed by 57% who check the price of an item via a tablet. Coming in third place, 51% of tablet shoppers read a review of an item they purchase or plan to purchase on their tablets.

Additionally 37% of respondents say their purchases start with mobile shopping (tablet or smartphone) between 26% and 50% of the time.

The study also explores top requested shopping features among smartphone and tablet shoppers.

The ability to see product images ranks first as a priority for both smartphone (62% of respondents) and tablet (63% of respondents) shoppers.

Smartphone shoppers’ next most important priority is the ability to access mobile-friendly versions of the websites they visit via mobile (48%), followed by being able to read product descriptions (44%).

After product images, tablet shoppers request being able to read product reviews (46%) and having access to product descriptions (45%).

Nielsen also finds after analyzing a separate panel of 9,000 U.S. iOS and Android smartphone owners that app use on smartphones is increasing. App use rose 15% in both time spent and unique visitors year over year between Q4 2014 and Q4 2015.

Source: The Nielsen Company