The report from JiWire also asked respondents what information would most likely influence their purchase decision while in-store.

It’s a good idea to be cautious about these types of questions as it’s difficult for consumers to accurately predict their future behaviour, but even so it’s no surprise to see that coupons and offers achieved the highest score.

Almost a third of respondents (28%) said that receiving a coupon while in-store would impact their shopping behaviour, followed by a sale item notification (20%), seeing an ad (15%) and searching for recipes (12%).

What information on your smartphone or tablet is most likely to influence your purchase decision while in a grocery store?

To find out whether retailers are catering to this need I tested apps from several grocery chains.

Read on to see what I discovered, or for more information on this topic check out our blog posts on eight studies that reveal how shoppers use smartphones in-store and Tesco’s m-commerce trial in Gatwick airport

Target

Target has an excellent mobile app that offers a huge range of functions, including mobile coupons that can be scanned at the checkout.

However I could not find a simple list function, which seems to be something of an oversight.

                      

Walmart

As with Target, Walmart has created an excellent Android app that includes a wide range of tools such as a barcode scanner and order tracking.

There is also an eReceipts feature so shoppers can receive a digital receipt for an in-store purchase.

However I could not find a list function. Instead shoppers would have to come up with a workaround by adding items to their shopping basket on the app to save them for later.

                       

Kroger

Kroger’s app has a very simple interface that hides a huge range of useful features. It has a long list of mobile coupons, a rewards scheme, barcode scanner and access to customer services.

Kroger also offers a very simple list tool that is very handy for using in-store, though in order to use it the shopper has to first create an account.