The rapid-fire adoption of smartphones and computer tablets has given rise to a new kind of consumer this holiday season: the mobile shopper.

 

Retailers are adapting quickly to people's almost-symbiotic relationship with their iPhones, Androids, Nooks and other high-tech gadgets by launching shopping apps just for the holidays and giving special deals to those who shop with iPads and the like.

 

Data from retailers show that people buy more when they shop using a tablet, which happens mostly from their couches. Smartphones are typically used on the go, at work and pretty much everywhere else, mobile commerce experts say. Michigan consumers who shop online — whether on traditional computers or on smartphones or tablets — plan to spend about $1,350, nearly 73 percent more than those who plan to shop only in stores, according to a Deloitte LLP survey.

 

"Consumers want to be more innovative in the way they shop," said Mark Davidoff, Michigan managing partner at Deloitte. "… They want to be in the hustle and bustle. But they are now carrying their trusted partner with them in all of this — their smartphone — to allow them to be smarter, multidimensional shoppers while in a store."

 

Deloitte surveys show 43 percent of Michigan respondents said they own a smartphone, up 6 percentage points from 2011. According to its survey, almost two-thirds or 64 percent of smartphone owners in Michigan plan to use their devices for holiday shopping.

 

There has been a more than 400 percent surge since 2010 in mobile shopping's share of online Black Friday holiday sales, according to IBM's Digital Analytics Benchmark survey.

 

About one of every six online Black Friday sales this year used a smartphone or a tablet, IBM found.

 

Tablets have had a meteoric rise. They took three years to reach 40 million units in U.S. sales in recent months, according to comScore, while smartphones took about nine years to reach a similar level.

 

Nationwide, Chicago-based consumer research firm e-tailing group estimates that 1 in 3 people will use their mobile devices to make a purchase between Black Friday and the new year.

 

Ron Elkus, co-owner of clothing boutique The Shirt Box in Farmington Hills, is among those who prefer a smartphone to a traditional computer to shop online.

 

"I find that it's handy, it's easy and it goes with me wherever I go," Elkus said. "… In the future, people will be able to do everything on their iPhones; everything will be contained in that little device. If your website is not up to par, then you'll be missing out."

 

Retailers understand the power of mobile shoppers and more cater to them. Wal-Mart Stores Inc. this past weekend offered only its mobile-app users savings of up to 40 percent on its top holiday gifts, including toys, video games and electronics. The world's largest retailer said its mobile traffic is highest on the weekends, so the offer was made on Sunday to catch that traffic.

 

Mobile shopping isn't problem-free. Entering credit card data on a smartphone can be slow, some websites aren't user-friendly and quickly purchasing multiple items at different stores is far too difficult, technology experts like Jason Kincaid of web publication Tech Crunch said. Analysts say consumers also should beware of identity theft and downloading unfamiliar apps that may compromise personal data.

 

But companies such as Usablenet are working to solve some of these problems.

 

The New York-based company is creating the mobile experiences that draw in consumers via their smartphones and tablets.

 

Chief Marketing Officer Carin van Vuuren called smartphones a consumer's "third hand" because they have become indispensable.

The company, which started out creating technology to make websites easier to navigate for the visually impaired, now work with stores internationally to make their m-commerce usable, sleek and, most important, simple.

 

"This is the first major holiday where (retailers) have to think about a multi-channel strategy," van Vuuren said. "The sites are for one brand, but the experiences have to be different. People browse and shop differently on smartphones, tablet and traditional computers. Yet these experiences have to complement one another."

 

For example, L.L. Bean created an easy-to-navigate smartphone site that has a banner across the top that promotes the retailer's 16 days of pre-Christmas sales. Users must return daily to see the new sale, van Vuuren said, which increases the chances of making a sale.

 

Men especially feel comfortable with m-commerce, a market that retailers are sure to notice in the years to come, said Liat Ben-Zur, senior director of software strategy and business development at Qualcomm. The company also is paying attention to people's use of what are known as "proximity-based" couponing and experiences. It's another way of saying that retailers can better track shoppers, their preferences and try to entice them into a store instantly.

 

"Proximity-based strategies give you the capability to know what devices, places and people are next to you right now," Ben-Sur said. "Studies show how that changes consumer behavior. If you knew that Banana Republic was having a 50 percent off sale as you walk by the store, chances are you'd go in to check it out."