Digital innovation’s impact on brick-and-mortar.

Consumers rely on their smartphones to help them shop.

Cell phone interaction when shopping

85% have interacted with their cell phones to shop

Regardless of purchase category, consumers are more likely to research pricing and discounts online than read social media or emails about the product. Some do neither (11–44% depending on category).

$977 million

in-person sales from mobile engagement in 2015

Still, most customers favor in-store purchasing supplemented by online shopping. In 2015, mobile engagement helped drive $977 million of in-person sales.1

Products purchased past 6 months

Clothing/Shoes 97%
Health/Beauty 93%
Electronics 75%
Home Improvement 66%
Furniture/Home 51%
Jewelry 50%
Sporting Goods 46%
Appliances 42%

Where payments made

In store Multi-channel website/app PurePlay (e.g., Amazon)
82% 46% 37%
88% 24% 24%
58% 34% 45%
93% 15% 11%
81% 23% 16%
67% 34% 25%
76% 28% 27%
77% 23% 13%

Consumers are willing to provide personal information in stores.

Provided their email address 68%
Provided their smartphone number 49%
Opted-in to receive emails from the retailers where they shop while in store 48%
Allowed access to their location via their smartphone 35%
Opted-in for text messages 33%
Downloaded the store’s mobile app while in-store 32%

Businesses are investing in in-store technology.

43% of businesses will increase the amount that they spend on in-store technology this year (excluding those unsure of spend).

Funding typically comes from:

  • Store Operations
  • Retail Store Sales
  • General Management / Executive

Digital in-store technology has plenty of room for growth.

What consumers want vs. what merchants offer

Self-checkout
12% 34% 35% 13% 5%
10%
Self-service interactive displays
4% 24% 43% 24% 5%
25%
Roaming sales with tablet
6% 20% 39% 26% 9%
31%
Store app messaging
4% 20% 37% 28% 11%
19%
  • Must have/critical
  • Important, not critical
  • Nice, not important
  • Doesn’t matter
  • Do not want
  • What merchants offer

There are more consumers that want these in-store experiences than businesses that are trying to deliver them.

Here’s what customers like about a salesperson with a roaming tablet2:

60%
Look up product information
59%
Check additional store inventory
55%
Look up inventory at a nearby store
47%
Provide basic information such as return policy or warrantee information
45%
Reserve products at a nearby store
37%
Perform check out
  • What consumers want.
  • Send exclusive offers on smartphone in store 55%
    Alert to replenish product based on how long last purchased 24%
    Would like
  • What consumers don’t want.
  • 6% would like this
    Least interested in having their movements tracked throughout the store via their phones.
  • What marketers offer.
  • Only 19% of retailers offer contextual messaging like this.
    Another 12% are trialing this technology.
    An additional 18% expect to implement it this year.

Take your retail experience to the next level.

Download The Path of Experience

This Adobe retail study, Retail Transformation Consumer and Marketer Research 2016, comprises results from 921 consumers and 102 marketers in the United States between March 18-31, 2016. Criteria for consumers: Millennials, Generation Xers, and baby boomers who own and use smartphones regularly, and made a product purchase in both a physical retail store and online in the last six months. Criteria for marketers: Business owners and employees working in the industries in which the consumers purchased, who have experience in store operations, strategy, and/or technology. All have at least one physical store location.

1 Sucharita Mulpuru. Retail Super Session. Adobe Summit 2016. March 2016.

2 North American Consumer Technographics Retail Survey (U.S.).

© 2025 Adobe Inc. All rights reserved. Adobe and the Adobe logo are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Adobe in the United States and/or other countries.

AdChoices