Nielsen’s recent research reveals changes in consumer behavior in the U.S., offering some insight to these shopping trends we’re seeing applied to mobile marketing, social media and other tools for businesses.  More specifically, the US consumer prefers small, but more frequent shopping trip to long ones, and buys less with each trip made. The main reason for this shift in the purchase pattern is the economic conditions that makes customer keep their ‘cash on hand’. As a response to consumers’ trips, retailers have now introduced smaller package sizes and changing displays in order to appeal to customers interested in smaller sizes.

Affluent consumers, on the other hand, increased their small trips to supercenters and club retail channels. Their shopping trips are make for the satisfaction of immediate needs. Nielsen analyzed the gathered data on shopping trips and came up with four types of shopping trips:

• Immediate (shoppers buying less valuable products spending an average of $15 per trip)
• Fill-in (shoppers buying a bit more valuable items spending an average of $51 per trip)
• Routine (these trips are done on a weekly basis, shoppers spending about $98 per trip)
• Stock-up (as the name suggests, these are copious shopping trips in which shoppers spend $242 on average. Most trips are done to supercenters and warehouse club stores)

About 82% of the shopping trips are smaller, driven by immediate needs or might also be fill-in trips, most of the destinations being c-stores, drug and dollar stores.  Mass merchandisers and grocery stores are preferred for immediate, fill-in and routine trips. On average, the largest amounts of cash are spend on food.

The mobile industry has also looked over changing purchase patterns and has addressed the situation accordingly. Poynt, for example, has recently patented a solution for delivering offers and coupons to a mobile user based on GPS location and information from the user’s profile. Andrew Osis, CEO of Poynt Corp. says that ‘mobile commerce begins with the ability to transact within a geographic area where the user is located’ and also noted that ‘more and more mobile consumers turning to their smartphones for timely information based on where they are and what they are searching for at that moment in time’.

LocalGinger has also come up with a new mobile search discovery tool called ‘Where’, aimed at offering personalized recommendations for local exploration. The suggestions are offered by local expert who analyze products and services based on experience.

Better yet, recently JiWire acquired NearbyNow, a creator of mobile shopping applications for magazines, brands and retailers. Following the acquisition, users are now able to view product catalogs, reserve items and afterwards pick up the items. “Brands and retailers are leaving a lot on the table if you are just targeting consumers that are already in  stores. To grow your business, you want location-based media that reaches new people and drives new revenue,” said David Courtney, CEO of JiWire.

The role of the mobile phone in marketing is significant as shown by Google’s launch of Goggles 1.3 for Android and the future of marketing will be revolved around geolocation, triggering advancements in marketing analytics and payment systems.  Search in particular is a big area of focus for Google’s mobile efforts, as this ties directly into shopper activity, research and effeciency.