Despite the ongoing stereotype that Millennials embrace all things digital, Civic Science’s latest research on the use of in-store apps proves that the demographic is wary to embrace technology that might be viewed as unnecessarily cumbersome. The market intelligence firm surveyed U.S. adults to discern the frequency and popularity of retail apps.
According to the survey results, 16 percent of respondents had used retail apps while shopping in a bricks-and-mortar. And while that might seem promising on the surface, an additional 15 percent had never heard of mobile apps, leading basically to a draw for adoption rates.
“However, contrary to expectations that Millennials would be leading the way with adoption, we’re actually seeing Gen-Xers to be bigger in-store retail app users, with 22 percent having used an app while shopping,” said Danielle Commisso, a writer for Civic Science in a report detailing the survey results.
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Retail app users tend to use the platforms as an extension to showroom product, the survey results said. “When we compare retail mobile app adopters with those who visit stores to see a product, but then buy that product online, things don’t look as cheery. It turns out that retail app users are the most likely to view a product in-store and then buy it online: 25 percent say they’ve done it a lot and 62 percent say they’ve done it once or twice,” Commisso continued.
Retailers and brands will behoove themselves to consider the main goal of deploying in-store apps. “Forty-two percent of those who have used mobile apps while shopping in retail stores do more shopping online than in stores, while only 36 percent do more shopping in stores,” the report said.
Given the usage rates of in-store apps, distinguishing incentives to motivate usage independent of online shopping will be crucial to move the needle on drawing and maintaining users — otherwise, an app will appear as a redundant feature and will potentially cannibalize online sales.
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