Which do you think is more popular for online shopping: a computer or a phone? Well, it turns out that the answer is “both” — but for different reasons.

It's no secret that more shoppers are making the flight to online shopping. In fact, 21 per cent of all purchases are expected to be made online in 2022, with the global e-commerce market expected to hit over US$5 trillion in the same year.

While it may seem that digital retail therapy is taking the world by storm, online shopping behaviour is far from homogenous — especially when it comes to the type of device used at different points of the buying journey.

Instead, brands and marketing professionals should design mobile sites for “easy, shallow searches” and PCs for “rigorous deep searches” to help increase online sales.

That’s one of the findings of a peer-reviewed study, “Mapping consumer’s cross-device usage for online search: Mobile- vs PC-based search in the purchase decision process”.  Co-authored by SMU Lee Kong Chian School of Business Professor of Marketing Jin K Han, it explored consumers’ preferences for either device for different objectives, such as browsing products, comparing prices or conducting an extensive search, before making a purchase. Often, as any seasoned shopaholic might attest, customers toggle between the two rather than stick to one channel.

Online behavioural gaps to fill

While it may seem that a comparison of devices would be imperative for any e-commerce strategy, Prof Han notes that past peer-reviewed research about consumers’ online purchasing habits had been biased toward PC use.

Researchers have rarely compared PC and smartphone use in e-commerce, but this is important because consumers tend to use multi-channels as part of their buying journey.

Instead, studies have focused on aggregated rather than individual preferences or relied on industry anecdotes. What’s missing is the vital detail about consumers’ preferences when it comes to online searching and buying.

“Fast forward to the number-crunching and other analysis, and the researchers’ advice is clear. Mobile sites should be designed for ‘easy shallow searchers’ and PCs for ‘rigorous deep searchers’.”

Co-authored alongside three business researchers from South Korea, the study set out to investigate the “what” (search subject), “how” (device chosen), and “when” (the stage in the buying decision) of consumers’ purchasing decisions.

As Prof Han, who is also the Academic Director of SMU’s Centre for Marketing Excellence, explains: “The pursuit for a better understanding of a customer’s purchase journey has been a perennial goal for marketing academics and scholars alike — as such, this knowledge could prove instrumental in designing effective marketing strategies.”

The researchers offered nuanced insights – it’s not a black and white field.

“Multi-channel buyers prefer a certain content on a specific device — such as checking prices on a mobile and product attributes on a PC. Hence markets should take note in the designing and communicating the message with the device in mind,” says Prof Han.

Why these insights matter

The popularity of online purchasing is increasing, with e-commerce accounting for a quarter of retail sales globally, according to Statista.

Google’s landmark study spanning 10 countries found that mobile overtook PC-based search in 2015. However, that doesn’t necessarily mean more purchasing happens on mobile. It might be just part of a customer’s journey involving a general, then more refined, search before purchasing – the whole process may not only happen on a mobile phone; instead, consumers may toggle between their phone and PC at different points.

To better understand the split, mobile phones now generate about a third of online retail traffic, says Statista. 

As part of their research, Prof Han and his team worked with an advertising company to collect data from clickstreams – users’ online activities represented by the sequence of links they had clicked. It shows how they had navigated online to search for and buy items in one durable product category.

The study states that multi-channel buyers favour mobile devices for price-related reasons, presumably to find a good deal or track price fluctuations. But, when they’re delving into attributes of a product, which requires more of an extensive search, they prefer to use their PC.

As such, brands with an existing online presence may benefit from establishing mobile-optimised sites. Prior to conducting in-depth research, shoppers often browse on their mobiles for relevant brands or models that they ultimately buy. They also conduct a “cognitive-dissonance-reducing search” later in the process, before checking out, on their phones to confirm their purchasing decision. In this context, cognitive dissonance refers to the discomfort consumers feel when deciding to buy something that goes against their habits or standards.

“Shoppers display a behaviour to reassure themselves that their choice is the right one before they pull the trigger,” elaborates Prof. Han.

“Hence, search activity spikes right before the purchase is made, and consumers tend to use a mobile device for this purpose.”

Take-home messages for marketers

Beyond simply building online platforms, businesses should take advantage of the unique characteristics and consumer browsing patterns on both device interfaces. Such insights can also help marketers tailor their content and advertising to consumers’ search behaviours, whether the consumers are on a mobile or a PC.

Besides driving traffic to websites, marketers should also design strategies that target and reward customers who order through their brands’ mobile apps. The research found that customers are better persuaded to make a purchase when they engage with multiple digital channels — which correlates with findings from a survey by mobile product consultancy, Heady, that consumers overwhelmingly use apps with the intent to shop and purchase.

It pays to invest in both mobile and PC customer touchpoints for businesses. It increases the chances that a brand’s message is seen and heard by more potential customers. Additionally, it helps build trust and relationships with consumers, as they are engaged across multiple platforms. Finally, it also signifies a company’s commitment to staying up-to-date and accessible.

Building a multi-platform presence helps manage positive word-of-mouth feedback on online communities, supports public relations (PR) activities featured on news websites, and engages in long-term interactions with influencers.

“Our study shows that consumers gather relatively more information from searches via non-seller sites (vs seller sites) using both mobile and PC devices,” explains Prof Han. 

“Firms may benefit from allocating some PR budget to enhance their product's profile on non-seller sites such as review sites, blogs and news sites, and build goodwill in online communities and relationships with bloggers.”

Managing price point access

Moreover, companies should make all stages of the buyers’ journey as painless as possible — such as the ease with which price information can be accessed.

 “Our results show that the price information acts as a powerful catalyst for consumers to engage in extensive searches, which signifies that commercial websites should feature some element of the price information to further encourage consumer search engagement,” states Prof Han.

While the results may not be transferrable to other product categories, such as frequently purchased consumables, they suggest that online searching and buying habits are complex, nuanced, and worthy of further research. More important, grasping consumer device preferences at various points of the buyers’ journey can help brands and companies improve their conversions and customer experience.