Are Tablets The Future of Online Shopping?

Forget pulling out your smartphones and notebooks, the tablet is where you’ll be doing your shopping in the future.

Smartphones have been the focus of mobile commerce for the past few years, but the avalanche of tablets and our desire to buy products online are meeting in our laps as we start shopping from the tablet.

Forbes reports that 9% of online shoppers already name the tablet as their preferred way to shop. Alexander Interactive, a wed design and engineering firm, points out a growth of 782% in online visits from the iPad to one of their clients, and 433% for another, while the iPhone visits only grew around 100%.

Personal Trend

A year ago, I was excited to get half of my Christmas shopping done on my smartphone while I waited in line to get the rest of my list checked off at the local mall. Since then, I have skipped my smartphone and gone straight for my iPad when it comes to shopping — even if a notebook is already open.

In the past month I have purchased a new HDTV, a dual band router and a collection of other items all from my iPad. In the next few days, I will surely order a few more things, even Tide and Downy, from my tablet.

Why Do I prefer the Tablet for Shopping?

For me, I like to shop on the iPad for the same reason I like to use the iPad to read books and magazines, it is a device that can be used in a relaxed nature. To me, the computer is about work, something I can turn off easier on the tablet.

When I pick up my iPad to do some shopping, I typically begin my shopping adventure, which means a lot of browsing and comparisons. This works well on the iPad. I can do major comparisons, like that on the HDTV, much easier with the tabbed browser in iOS 5. This allows me to look at multiple reviews, price comparisons and videos of the product without the hassles of switching tabs in earlier versions of iOS.

Tablets Are The Future of Shopping

I see a strong uptick in tablet shopping as more users get them and as retailers customize their store experience to the 10″ screen. I plan to continue my shopping from the tablet, especially during the Black Friday and holiday shopping season, where it will surely be closer than a notebook.

The rise of “T-Commerce” won’t kill of mobile commerce, but rather I expect we will see apps made to help us complete the shopping decision. We already have apps like Springpad, which allows you to add a product while you are shopping and helps you compare prices when you get back home on your tablet or notebook.

This is just the beginning of a marriage between our smartphones and our tablets. I see specialized apps and retailers jumping on board this trend early in 2012, if not before the end of the year.

Shopping cart image adapted from – hospi-table