ABSTRACT
Various kinds of mobile applications have emerged as a result of these advances and are penetrating our everyday life, changing human behaviors, and generating important social and economic impacts (Xu et al. 2008). Among these efforts, mobile applications for shopping come at the intersection of ubiquitous computing and electronic commerce and are gaining attention from both communities (Xu et al. 2008). Prior work though has mostly focused on the transactional functions of mobile phones and information consumption on-the-go and less on the experiential aspect of shopping and how this can be improved via the use of wireless devices (Xu et al. 2008). Nowadays, there is a fundamental blurring of the boundaries between online and off-line shopping (Gish 2012). Smartphones are fundamentally changing how people shop, browse, use coupons, find locations, and enter local and near field promotions. Shopping behavior is changing and showrooming and snacking (shopping in a spare five minutes) are increasing (Gish 2012). The real and the virtual world are converging into a complete shopping experience. It is becoming typical user behavior for consumers when in stores to go for their handheld devices in search of additional product information, better prices, and location information in an attempt to speed up the overall shopping process and gain a better shopping experience.
