THE USE OF MOBILE PHONES BY CUSTOMERS IN RETAIL STORES: A CASE OF POLAND

Companies wishing to meet customers' needs should always take into account new technological solutions, which are increasingly used by consumers. One of these technologies, which has become increasingly advanced, is the cell phone, particularly the so-called smartphone. Mobile phones have become a useful tool for both retail stores and customers. Customers can quickly search in their cells for the price of the product offered on websites. These broad capabilities of cell phones have led to a new kind of competition for traditional stores. On the other hand retail stores can use cell phones in order to inform their customers about new promotions, events, etc. The main objective of this paper is to introduce the scale and the cause of the use of cell phones by customers in traditional retailing. The author has focused on cell phone utilization by customers while shopping. In the paper the survey results have been presented, which had been conducted among cell phone users in one medium- sized Polish city. The research results show that cell telephony while shopping has yet to reach the same level of popularity among Polish customers, which it has attained in other countries.