Some retailers have been hesitant to enter the mobile realm, choosing instead to rely on traditional forms of marketing and tools for their customers. However, recent research has revealed that mobile applications may actually help to boost customer retention as well as revenues for merchants.

Business Insider reports that according to a study by Flurry, consumers spent 15 percent more time on retailers’ mobile apps in 2012 than they did throughout the previous year. The research compared individuals’ use of several different applications, including daily deals, price comparison and online marketplace tools. While in 2011 retailers came in fourth place regarding app use, last year, customers increasingly accessed merchants’ mobile resources for shopping purposes, bumping up their use to first place above all other apps.

Tech Crunch writes that while daily deal apps did have their success, the Flurry study found that consumers prefer going straight to retailers’ mobile tools to browse for and purchase the products and services they are looking for. For this reason, companies that have yet to develop mobile apps should consider doing so this year, or else risk losing out to competition.

This entry was posted by Retail Pro on Monday, February 4th, 2013 at 10:53 am .