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17% of Brits Would Shop from Mobile Phone

With mobile phone penetration higher than that of PCs, shopping from the mobile phone has the potential to be the next big thing in retail, according to (pdf) a study that found 17% of Britons would be willing to buy products and services through their phone.

Men are more in favor of the idea than women (22% versus 12%), and the age group most amenable to the idea are those 18-24 (29%), according to the Lightspeed Research survey of 1,000 Britons:

As with online retail, which took time to increase in popularity, there is a good basis for the growth of shopping through mobiles, especially as more retailers begin to offer the service, the research suggests.

Of those who were receptive to the idea of shopping from their mobile handsets, more than three quarters said they would shop with well-known high street and online retailers; “Any company offering great prices” was attractive to only 23%:

One of the potential advantages of shopping from a mobile phone is the ability to make purchases from anywhere - and that is reflected in the types of products and services respondents said they would buy:

• Two of the top three choices were “on the go” type products - film, theatre and events tickets (No. 2) and travel tickets (No. 3).
• Other products selected by our respondents included DVDs and CDs at the top of the list at 73%, books and travel both at 55%, and flowers at 48%.
• Clothes, food and toiletries were the least-popular choices.

About the data: The survey was completed by 998 respondents from the Lightspeed Research UK online panel between 10-14 April 2008.