Fixed Mobile Convergence

The Interactive Advertising Bureau and its Mobile Marketing Center of Excellence recently released a new report that studied how consumers’ access to mobile data will ultimately determine what they buy and where they buy it. The new report is called “Mobile Shoppers,” and also reveals the first-ever ranking of the most mobile shopping savvy cities in the U.S.

Houston was rated the number one city for having the most number of people who were considered adept, able and prone to shop on mobile devices according to “Space City” consumers. Coming in second was New York and in third place was Atlanta.

These rankings were decided by studying the current mobile shopping audience today along with the distribution of mobile-savvy shoppers across major U.S. cities. In a release, Joe Laszlo (News - Alert), Deputy Director, IAB Mobile Marketing Center of Excellence, said, “Early data this holiday season already indicated the growing importance of mobile as a shopping tool. Identifying mobile shoppers and delivering relevant messages to consumers as they are in shopping mode represents a key opportunity for marketers. That’s why we took this study one step further – pinpointing cities where advertisers would need to quickly embrace mobile strategies as a part of their overall plans to attract shoppers, both during the holiday season and throughout the year.”

Some of the other findings in the report reveal that mobile shoppers are younger and have higher incomes than the average mobile user; ten percent of U.S. mobile users use their mobiles for comparing prices; almost 20 percent of U.S. mobile users use their phones to text or call family or friends about a product while in a store.