Abstract:

The mobile shopping applications will impact the future of brick-and-mortar stores, especially in relation to the young mobile-savvy consumers. Since the beginning of the present decade, scholars have studied this domain. The paper presents the findings of a survey on the attitude of the generation Y towards the mobile applications for in-store shopping. The primary objectives of the research referred to the cognitive, affective and behavioral aspects of the attitude. Survey sample consisted of 308 respondents of 18-34 years, which use smartphones and reside in Bucharest (Romania). Findings highlighted that young potential users have a relatively favorable attitude towards such applications and believe they are useful. The main attributes of the ideal application in decreasing order of importance are: level of user data protection, price level; number of functionalities, communication flows from the retailer to the user, access of the user to own data. The most important functionalities that should be provided by the ideal application are: price checking; store inventory checking; locating an item in another store of the retail chain, receiving coupons and discount offers from retailer. Respondents are relatively equally split as regards buying from a retailer that provides a mobile application for in-store shopping rather than from a retailer that does not provide such application. For the fast diffusion of the mobile shopping applications in stores, the critical requirement to be met is that retailers build an image of improved, seamless and consistent customer experience. To the best of our knowledge, this research is the first within the published scientific literature that addresses the topic on the Romanian market.