FACTS, FIGURES & THE FUTURE: Today's Abstract April 2012

Facts, Figures, & the Future (F3) e-Newsletter provides the latest consumer data, facts, figures, and trend information. Today's issue features: Retailers take to tablets, Smartphones, hesitant users, Facing a coupon crossroads, and more.

Facts, Figures, & the Future (F3) e-Newsletter provides the latest consumer data, facts, figures, and trend information. Today's issue features: Retailers take to tablets, Smartphones, hesitant users, Facing a coupon crossroads, and more.

Doctors may say “take two tablets and call me in the morning.” Yet retailers also use tablets—to stay relevant with omni-channel shoppers, and to drive sales and their image as innovators. It’s making them better in shoppers’ eyes.

Nearly six out of ten consumers surveyed by AisleBuyer (57%) think retailers that use tablets and other mobile devices in place of cash registers are more innovative than stores without this capability. More than one-fifth of shoppers (22%) have been to a store where associates do this.??In a second story, The number of smartphones sold worldwide in 2011 for the first time exceeded the number of personal computers sold—and in a few years the number of mobile devices will dwarf the number of PCs, projected Henry Blodget, CEO, Business Insider, presenting at BI’s Ignition West: Future of Mobile Conference.

In a second story focusing on mobile devices, American consumers are farther ahead than the global pace in converting from dumb-phones to smartphones (46% have done so already, says Pew Research Center). The conversion cycle has just begun internationally—835 million smartphone users compare with 5.6 billion dumb-phone users, said Mary Meeker, Kleiner Perkins and Morgan Stanley. Young adults with high incomes have the highest smartphone penetration rates in the U.S., reported Nielsen.

And in a third story, Ralphs is no longer doubling coupon values in its southern California stores. If this is a sign of industry actions to come—since retailers anticipate price hikes in staples and need to lessen waste in their systems—millions of coupon-toting shoppers will be upset in 2012. Stores that find ways to visibly help people stretch budgets should gain favor.

Facts, Figures & the Future is in its eighth year of publication, providing food retailers and manufacturers with timely information to help meet the needs of our ever changing shopping culture. F3 is delivered FREE to qualified subscribers, the second Monday of each month. Click here to sign up now and read our most recent issue.