Cincinnati Enquirer

Smartphones and tablets are quickly becoming as much a part of the shopping experience as coupons and credit cards. A new survey from suburban Cincinnati-based card processor Vantiv found significant increases in customers who research and pay for products with tablets and phones.

One-third of shoppers said they used a tablet to pay for merchandise in a store in 2014, and 11 percent said they used a smartphone. That's way up from the 2013 study, which noted that 19 percent used a tablet and 2 percent a phone.