Survey: Most tablet owners use mobile devices to shop

LOS ANGELES — A survey released Monday by PriceGrabber said that 77% of consumers who own a tablet computer use either a tablet or a smartphone to shop.

The survey included responses from 1,829 U.S. online shopping consumers, 22% of whom indicated that they own a tablet computer.

When consumers who use their mobile devices for shopping were asked how often they make purchases from their mobile devices, 40% said a couple times a month, 23% said once a week, 20% said a few times a year, and 10% said daily.

"PriceGrabber continues to see a dramatic surge in mobile shopping, with more consumers making purchases from their mobile devices," said Graham Jones, general manager of PriceGrabber. "With the use of smartphones and tablet computers becoming increasingly common, consumers appear to be more readily embracing mobile as a go-to platform for shopping that can be easily accessed anywhere, anytime."

When tablet owners were asked if they had downloaded applications onto their mobile devices, 84% indicated that they had done so. PriceGrabber's survey found that on average, these consumers currently have 39 apps on their mobile devices, seven of which are shopping-related.

"Consumers are becoming savvier and approaching mobile shopping from every angle by downloading not just one, but a variety of shopping-related apps that can offer them everything from price drops to bar code scanning to coupons," Jones added.

He added that PriceGrabber expects mobile shopping to be game-changing as consumers increasingly enact various strategies to find the best prices and retailers inevitably expand their mobile presence.