Nearly three quarters of smartphone owners have used their device to make a purchase in the last year, according to a new study. 

The survey, carried out by Lieberman Research Worldwide and mobile marketing platform Thumbspeak, found that 74 per cent of respondents bought products or services through mobile apps this year, with an average of 8.4 purchases per user. 

Usage is likely to grow as 80 per cent of respondents said they expect to use their device for making purchases in the coming year, with an average of 10.5 projected transactions. This represents a growth rate of around 25 per cent. 

“The mobile app space is booming as smartphone adoption has soared,” says Scott Luck, VP of innovations at Lieberman Research Worldwide. “Companies are scrambling to find ways to leverage this new marketing tool to enhance customer loyalty and identify some incremental revenue streams. We are trying to help companies optimise their mobile app offerings. It requires a lot of feature testing, but the payout can be enormous if you get it right.”

Facebook was ranked the top app by the poll, which questioned 1,200 smartphone owners via mobile surveys on May 22. Amazon, eBay, Angry Birds and Groupon made up the top five. “Its interesting that none of the major brick-and-mortar retailers, packaged goods or traditional entertainment companies have emerged among the favourites. ESPN is the lone representative of these to crack the top 10, though I suspect this will change in the next two to three years,” Luck says.

The research was carried out as ppart of Lieberman and Thumbspeaks Mobile App Usage Tracking study.