Consumers will be flocking to stores this holiday season and new research suggests many will be armed with their trusty shopping companion: a smartphone.

73% of shoppers say they use their smartphones while out shopping, according to the “2015 Annual Holiday Shopping Survey,” an online survey of 1,000 U.S. adults completed Nov. 10 by Wanderful Media, a retail mobile technology vendor.

According to the survey, some of the most popular ways to use a smartphone while shopping are to compare prices from other stores or online (42.7%); find deals, coupons and/or promo codes for stores nearby (41%); find store locations (33.4%); browse sales and weekly ads (28.5%); check, add and delete items from a shopping list (23.4%); submit receipts for cash back offers (21.8%); and scan receipts to track purchases (14.4%). Respondents could check more than one item.

40.9% of survey responds say they use shopping apps, and of those consumers, 14.1% use one shopping app for planning a shopping trip or while in store, 36.4% two apps, 26.2% three apps, 8.8% four apps and 14.1% five or more apps. 33.4% of shoppers plan to use coupons from shopping apps during their holiday shopping.

19.7% or respondents say they receive smartphone alerts from apps about the latest holiday sales information, and 45.2% would consider signing up to receive them. 35.1% would not sign up to receive alerts.

Retail giant Amazon Inc. is aiming to entice shoppers to sign up for alerts from its app with a new feature for the holiday season called Watch A Deal that lets holiday shoppers pick a deal in the app before it’s live and receive a smartphone alert when the deal is available. Amazon also has 150 offers available only in its app in an “App Only Deals” tab. New deals will be released daily between 3 p.m.-11 p.m. PT starting Thanksgiving through Dec. 9. Also, Prime members in 20 metro areas, can use the Prime Now mobile app to receive free two-hour delivery on select Deals of the Day throughout the holiday season.

The Wanderful survey suggests Amazon’s approach to offer special deals via smartphone apps will resonate with consumers. 16.5% of shoppers in the study say they use their smartphone the most for researching or finding out about holiday sales. 8.7% say tablets are their primary device, for researching and finding out about holidays sales and 70.5% say desktops and laptops are the most popular device for researching and finding out about holidays sales. 3.6% don’t use a computer, smartphone or tablet to research or find out about sales and 0.7% responded “other.”

Another study looks at planned smartphone shopping behavior on Black Friday specifically. 75% of shoppers who plan to shop in stores on Black Friday plan to use either a smartphone or tablet to assist them, such as by finding a store location, comparing prices and looking up coupons, according to the Retale online study “Is Thanksgiving The New Black Friday?” which surveyed 1,000 U.S. adults between Nov. 2-6. Retale is a mobile shopping app.

Consumers say the most common ways they will use mobile devices to shop on Black Friday are: comparing prices (64%); finding deals (63%); accessing coupons (60%); researching products online (51%); making shopping lists (45%); buying directly from devices (41%); finding store locations (33%); and getting or sharing live updates through social networks (23%). Survey respondents could pick more than one choice.

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