The survey of 15,000 mobile users in 14 countries on their shopping habits revealed mobile shopping is especially popular among a large number of Americans – 74 million consumers in the United States out of 310 million are shopping on their mobile phone.

James Lamberti (pictured right), inMobi’s vice president of global research and marketing said the really key finding is that mobile is going to cannibalise PC consumption.

“This will have a big impact on marketers as they begin to leverage mobile in a way they aren’t doing today.”

Key findings of the InMobi survey:

•  49% of consumers using mobile Internet prefer shopping in stores, 35% like shopping with their mobile devices, 16% prefer shopping from their PC or laptop.

•  Mobile shopping to grow significantly in the U.S. mobile shopping market as more consumers purchase smartphones and adopt mobile Internet.

•  Sales volume from mobile shopping in the U.S. projected to reach US$9 billion in 2011. In 2010 sales totalled $2.4 billion and in 2009 only $1.2 billion.

•  Most popular purchases from mobile devices in the U.S. are mobile content/games, with 42% of respondents having made a purchase in this category using a device.

•  19% of consumer buy electronics via their mobile phone, 15% buy apparel, 13% entertainment tickets, 12% travel.

•  63% of respondents said their mobile shopping experience was positive.

“Consumers are way ahead of marketers when it comes to mobile,” said Lamberti “Thirty to 40 percent of Americans are accessing the mobile Web on a monthly basis, and that number will double over the next couple of years.”

Marketers thus have to understand this and look for ways to influence this shopping behaviour.

“Those who have gone in early have an amazing competitive advantage with consumers,” added Lamberti.

Video below: Tom Davis, VP of E-Commerce, Kenneth Cole, discussing mobile shopping at the 2010 eTail Conference. Courtesy of The eTail Blog