By Claudia Bruemmer

Before long, the number of people accessing the Internet by mobile web will outnumber those connecting on laptops and computers. Google CEO Larry Page said in a recent interview, “Computing is moving onto mobile.” So naturally, when it comes to back-to-school shopping, mobile will play a big role, as shown in a new study from Deloitte. In fact, this could be predictive of things to come in the coming holiday shopping season.

The study found that while consumers plan to maintain or increase spending, they plan to tackle rising prices by comparison shopping with smartphones and looking for bargains via social networks. Two-thirds of consumers with smartphones will use them for back-to-school shopping.

The survey, commissioned by Deloitte and conducted by an independent research company between July 5 and July 11, queried 1,000 parents of school-aged children in grades K-12.

Although 3 out of 5 of these shoppers will use mobile devices to get price information, more than 2 out of 5 said they plan to download discounts, coupons or sale information via their smartphones.

While retailers are in better shape to meet customer demand via web-enabled smartphones this year, they should be prepared to do a lot of discounting because everyone wants a bargain. Shoppers plan to outsmart inflation by conducting comparison shopping on their smartphones. While the survey queried parents with smartphones, I would venture to say those without mobile devices will comparison shop ahead of time by laptop or computer.

The Deloitte survey revealed that while consumers plan to maintain or increase back-to-school spending, it’s not because they feel comfortable going on a spending spree. Rather, consumers anticipate the cost of school clothing and supplies will rise, so they will be cost conscious as they shop. They expect to spend more on school supplies including pens, paper, tissues and cleaning wipes as school districts are no longer supplying such basics.

The study also found that social networks will play a bigger role in parental back-to-school shopping. Over one-third of parents plan to use social networking sites for shopping news and tips, which is up from 29 percent last year. Among these respondents, nearly 7 out of 10 plan to use social networks to find out about promotions, 44 percent will browse products and 28 percent will read reviews and recommendations.

The study also shows that using smartphones and social networking sites are not the only changes that consumers will make compared to last year. Because of a poor economy, 55 percent of parents are taking inventory and buying only what the family needs, while 26 percent said they will reuse last year’s clothing and supplies due to concerns about the economy or their finances.

However, consumers who earn over $100,000 a year said their financial situation is the same or better than last year, compared with 66 percent of respondents who earned less than $100,000.
So we have two different consumer groups, divided by household income. The higher price of gas and food, which are expenses that can’t be avoided, are consuming a larger chunk of the paycheck for lower-income consumers, causing them to cut back on expenses.

Since mobile offers many ways to facilitate online and in-store sales such as QR codes, coupons, mobile checkout, discount offers, mobile payment, etc., retail businesses should plan now to put all these tools in place to facilitate conversions.