The number of consumers planning to use mobile devices to conduct research and make purchases during the holiday season is up significantly from a year ago, according to a new report from MarketLive.

A new MarketLive survey reveals that The fourth annual “Mindset of a Multichannel Shopper” survey found that mobile devices will be heavily used by consumers this holiday season with 16 percent of consumers plan to do all or most of their shopping via a smartphone or tablet this holiday season, up from just 3 percent a year ago. Additionally, 29 percent of consumers plan to use their mobile phone to research gifts prior to a store visit, up from 12 percent a year ago.

“The big news is that mobile isn’t just for research anymore,” said Ken Burke, founder and chairman of MarketLive, Petaluma, CA.

“It is true that more people than ever will be using mobile to research where to find gifts, where to find stores, compare prices and look for best values for their gift list,” he said. “Twenty nine percent of the consumers surveyed said they would use their mobile devices for these purposes, up from 12 percent a year ago.

“But even more shocking, many more people are planning on purchasing on their mobile phones.”

Mobile commerce grows
Key findings include that 43 percent of shoppers are very or somewhat likely to use their mobile devices for redeeming coupons when making an in-store purchase.

Other findings include that consumers will spend about the same amount on holiday gifts as last year but that a greater share of their spending will take place online, with 33 percent of the more than 1,000 shoppers surveyed saying they will do all or most of their shopping on the Internet this holiday season, up from 25 percent last year.

“The most shocking thing is that the number of people who plan to purchase on mobile has grown by almost double this year,” Mr. Burke said.

“Eleven percent said they would purchase on mobile last year, versus 21 percent this year,” he said. “That is surprising given how slow mobile purchasing adoption has been up until now.”

The reasons consumers are shopping online include saving money, locating hard-to-find products and saving time.

Product focused merchandising
Additionally, the report found that shoppers are placing more emphasis on online peer recommendations and reviews, with 45 percent of shoppers saying these are very or somewhat important this year, up from 34 percent last year.

Half of shoppers also said that the ability to find more personalized gifts was a very or somewhat important reason for buying online, versus 41 percent last year.

The results suggest that retailers should be considering how to better optimize their mcommerce experience by using product focused merchandising to convince users to buy.

“Examples of things to entice shoppers to purchase include directive buy buttons within the merchandising, showing categories to make the products more obvious and easy to find and displays such as carousels that bring products forward,” Mr. Burke said.

“Content is also a critical tool to use to encourage conversion,” he said. “Bring more of the product content out by putting videos of the merchandise on the mobile site or by bringing some of the descriptive or detailed content forward to make the mobile experience more rich and full for the buyer.

“This year retailers have to focus on mobile as a selling machine – it’s not just for research any more.”

Final Take
Chantal Tode is associate editor on Mobile Commerce Daily, New York