The Impact of Mobile Device Use on Shopper Behaviour in Store: An Empirical Research on Grocery Retailing

Over the last decade, retailers and manufacturers alike are increasing their attention to the role of instore mobile technology use with the aim to understand its impact on consumers’ decision making process. The rise of the mobile channel, in fact, has produced disruptive changes in shopping habits designed to gradually reduce the effectiveness of in-store marketing levers in influencing shopping behaviour. This topic is of paramount importance in grocery sector since retailers and manufacturers devote a lot of investments in instore marketing activities with the aim to influence consumers’ decisions and stimulate impulse purchases. Nevertheless, there are few contributions about the influence of the mobile technology in a retail setting and its effects on buying behavior inside the store. Our research intends to explore the impact of in-store mobile technology use on shopper behavior instore in order to understand its effects on planned versus unplanned purchases. According to our preliminary results, consumers using mobile technology instore make less unplanned items and fail to purchase more planned items. Moreover, the use of mobile technology negatively impacts shoppers’ ability to recall in-store stimuli. Our findings are interesting for both retailers and manufacturers who are looking for new ways to better address their marketing efforts and increase consumers’ engagement instore.