A recent Wall Street Journal article features results from a UPS Pulse of the Online Shopper Study (PDF) that shows some interesting data on why people choose PC over mobile for their online shopping.  Given the current challenges with mobile commerce, it’s not surprising to see the top 2 selections as selected by survey participants.  43% selected “can’t get a clear or large enough image of the product” and 34% selected “product information cannot be easily viewed”.

Some other surprising data from the study involves how shoppers are using PC’s and mobile devices to research products before purchasing.  Again, PC’s come out on top with over 61% of shoppers using PC’s to research products.  This runs counter to the general current mindset that shoppers use mobile devices to research a product and then purchase in-store or on a PC.  This also points to webrooming as a growing trend in the multi-channel commerce space.

And an even more surprising data point shows that despite the growing ‘app culture’ for mobile platforms, shoppers still prefer to research and purchase products via a website on their mobile device.Data continues to show that the mobile commerce experience is still in very early stages and not yet ready for prime time.  With mobile commerce only set to grow to 2.4% of total retail sales by 2018, retailers will need to adjust their mobile expectations accordingly.  First, it’s more important than ever that retailers don’t disregard the PC shopper given the highest purchase conversion rate is still found via the PC.  Second, though mobile commerce might not yet be effective, the growing use of mobile tools in-store, such as Augmented Reality, provides numerous opportunities for retailers.