The surprising way smartphones are changing the way we shop

Gamestop has no doubt that mobile devices have changed the way its customers shop. Smartphones and tablets now account for up to 68 percent of the traffic to the videogame chain’s Web site, where customers are frequently browsing products and looking up trade-in values for their old games. One thing they’re not doing much of on mobile devices? Buying stuff. In fact, “purchasing through that phone probably wouldn’t even make the top ten list of engagement activities that they do,” said Jason Allen, the retailer’s vice president of multichannel.

Gamestop's experience reflects a trend seen throughout the industry: While there has been a surge in traffic to retailers' Web sites from smartphones, a proportionately big boom in sales on these gadgets have yet to appear. In other words, for all the time we spend swiping and tapping on our phones, we still aren’t especially willing to make purchases on them. Instead, shoppers are largely using their phones as something of a personal, pocket-sized sales associate that helps them browse and research while they are in a store. That has prompted retailers to adapt their mobile strategies to help them do something counterintuitive: Boost in-store sales.