Experian has released a Retail Whitepaper looking at trends in the retail industry. The whitepaper charts the emergence of the “handset haggler” – Experian’s term for consumers who use their mobile in-store to check the price of goods elsewhere before making a decision whether to buy or not. According to a survey of 2,000 UK consumers by ResearchNow, 10 per cent of UK shoppers now do this.
Other findings of the survey, outlined in the whitepaper, include: 
- 5 per cent of respondents have actively sought feedback on a purchase in store from Twitter or Facebook
- 4 per cent will make a purchase based on an offer sent to them based on their location
- 12 per cent say their purchasing decisions are influenced by voucher code sites and collaborative buying sites like Groupon
- Up to 90 per cent of offline purchasing decisions are influenced by online. 60 per cent of food sales are influenced by online activity
- 40 per cent of respondents use price comparison sites before buying electrical or white goods
- Consumers are increasingly seeking recommendations and reviews. 20 per cent of commodity-type purchases are influenced by reviews.
Experian believes that retailers who harness mobile and multichannel activity generally, and combine it with technology to enhance the in-store experience, will see noticeable jumps in profits. The company notes that marketers who are focused on a multichannel approach are thriving. In 2008, the 51 per cent of online purchases were from pure-play online retailers. Now they only account for 41 per cent, while the proportion of online sales going to multichannel retailers has increased from 49 per cent to 59 per cent.
