If the latest statistics from TheFind are a bellwether, mobile comparison shopping is becoming a force to be reckoned with.
Product searches coming from mobile devices now account for nearly 20% of the total number of shopping searches TheFind handles daily—that’s 12 million monthly mobile searches of 60 million monthly total searches, the company says. What’s more, since its launch last year, TheFind Mobile app has been downloaded more than one million times across the iPhone and Android platforms, it adds.
Using one app or site to compare products and prices makes for a simpler, more streamlined user experience compared with using multiple retailer apps, and TheFind mobile data shows that mobile consumers are jumping onboard its mobile experience, says Siva Kumar, CEO of TheFind. “Moving forward, this trend could accelerate as consumers empower themselves to comparison shop hundreds of thousands of online sites during their local mall visits,” he says, “and in the very near future we see a somewhat parallel and largely untapped opportunity emerging with tablet computers enabling apps for new browsing and discovery shopping experiences.”
In an analysis of its mobile search data, TheFind finds people remain uncomfortable sharing location-based information with mobile apps until they discover reciprocal value. “We found that two-thirds of our users initially choose not to enable location-based services. However, almost all users start to either share their ZIP code or enable location-based services [via GPS] once they click our Nearby tab to search for items at local stores,” says Ramneek Bhasin, vice president and general manager of mobile. “This suggests that consumers are increasingly becoming privacy-conscious but are willing to exchange information for real value, such as lower prices on the same product discovered within driving distance.”
TheFind Mobile is available for the iPhone and iPod Touch for free via Apple Inc.’s App Store and for Android phones for free via the Android Marketplace, GetJar, T-Mobile and other Android app stores. TheFind says its app has been approved by Amazon.com Inc. for the e-retailing giant’s forthcoming Android app store.