Top Features Mobile Shoppers Want in Their Apps

There are over 1,000 shopping apps for the iPhone alone, most providing a limited feature set. Some of them allow users to collect coupons, build shopping list or to keep and discover recipes, but there are a few things that shoppers would like to see in a shopping app. Catalina, in partnership with the market research firm, InsightsNow, did a market study on 1,000 smartphone owners who are the primary shoppers within their households to discover exactly this.

Here are some of the most desired features:

– Digital coupons, real-time coupons, reminders of things on the shopping lists, and the ability to track spending are the top four most desired features.
– Almost one-third of respondents have used 31 or more coupons in the past six months, and 38 percent are extremely likely to use digital coupons in the future

Mobile shopping apps should keep users focused on their task:

– The number one reason mobile shoppers say they wouldn’t want a specific
feature in their shopping app is because “it seems time consuming”.
– Integration with social networks like Facebook, Twitter and Google+ was the
least desired by shoppers.

Smartphone-enabled shoppers want apps that help them save money through
coupons and special offers. In fact, across the total survey population, coupons and real-time coupons are the most desired features. In addition, they want features that help them become smarter about what they spend and how they spend it.

Almost 61% of adult Americans now carry smart mobile devices. As a result, grocery retailers and brands have a huge opportunity to tap into the always-on, always-with-you, always-connected and impulse nature of the mobile device to create new personalized experiences and more sticky relationships with shoppers and consumers. Currently coupons are at the top of the list of desired features; however, there’s also a trend that shows that users want apps to help them become smarter, more efficient shoppers.