Mobile shoppers want clothes, cosmetics

By Kim Tae-gyu

Shoppers who want to use smartphones for their purchases are interested in buying clothing and cosmetics the most, according to a recent survey conducted by the Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KCCI).

The KCCI said Friday that it had questioned a total of 713 people with regard to what products they hoped to purchase through smartphones and the most common answer was clothes with 30 percent.

Cosmetics came in second with 21 percent chased by accessories with 17 percent; food and beverages, 14 percent; eco-friendly farm produce, 8 percent; and medicine and jewelry, 5 percent each.

The chamber also learned that 63 percent of respondents in their 20s use smartphones while the portion was 62 percent for 30-somethings and 60 percent for those aged between 40 and 49 ― that for teens was a mere 33 percent.

``We surveyed high school students. Originally, we expected that they would be heavy users of smartphones. But only a third of them actually do,’’ KCCI official Hong Soon-yong said. ``We are struggling to figure out the reason.’’

Asked whether or not they would take advantage of radio frequency identification (RFID) technology through installed readers on smartphones, 87 percent of them replied positively.

The RFID tag refers to a small integrated-circuit chip together with a radio emitter. The tiny tags emit radio waves so that its identification code can be scanned from a distance through a reader.

The leading-edge technology has been expected to offer a variety of information on any product such as its ingredients, origins, producers and transportation history.

However, the hitch has been that RFID readers are not available to the general public. Industry watchers project that smartphones would be able to address the problem.

``The biggest advantage of smartphone-empowered shopping is that customers can snap up products at any time and at any place. Accordingly, an increasing number of people could use it,’’ Hong said.

``Domestic companies are required to cater to the needs of the smartphone users in the future for them to survive and thrive.’’

The smartphone craze started late here when the the Apple iPhone debuted in 2009 ― much later than other nations due to domestic rules obliging the use of a local mobile Internet platform.

The iPhone came to Korea after the easing of the regulations, which were formulated in the early 2000s, thus prompting other handset manufacturers to join in the rivalry on smartphones.

Currently, more than 10 million people have such handsets and the figure is projected to double in the not-so-distant future.