Nearly three in four digital buyers use a mobile phone while in-store
Shoppers in Brazil are finding that smartphones are handy companions in stores. According to June 2015 polling, digital buyers in the country are using them most often to compare and take photos of products.
E-bit Informação found that among digital buyers in Brazil who owned a mobile phone, 40% had used it to take pictures of products—the most common showrooming application in the survey.
Comparing prices while shopping in person was nearly as common, followed by looking up product information.
What wasn’t common among respondents was actually buying items digitally while shopping at a brick-and-mortar retailer. Just 9% of digital buyers had done so—a reminder that using a mobile phone in-store to compare products doesn’t always translate strictly to “showrooming.”
Overall, 73% of those polled had done at least one of the activities.

eMarketer estimates that this year, 37.3 million people in Brazil—40.3% of internet users in the country, or 23.3% of the population overall—will make at least one purchase this year via digital means. Growth in the digital buyer population is tapering off, but will remain in the double digits through 2016.