Tablet devices are such hybrids that it’s hard for me to call them “Mobile devices. ” I mean, it’s obvious that you can move around with them…people take them everywhere. But I don’t think they take them out shopping with them. They’re mobile in a ‘next-gen laptop’ sort of way, not in a smart phone way. It’s a fine point, and you’d think it’s a subject for academics, not for retailers. Well, turns out that’s not the case. Let’s take a stroll through time.

Back in the early days of (what was then called) multi-channel retailing, I worked for another research firm. We did some consumer-based research and discovered what later became a core retail axiom – we found multi-channel shoppers tend to spend more than their single channel counterparts, and they were almost always more profitable. This was obviously very important data and led retailers to expand their on-line offerings. It led to the “buy online, pick up in stores ” phenomenon, and all the technological and organizational complexities associated with that.

Then along came the smart phone, and until now, the device has been viewed more as a leveler of the retail pricing playing field than anything else. At least one retailer has blamed a bad quarter on shoppers price-comparing with their mobile phones. Retailers are just now trying to get themselves in the mobile promotional offering game – and finding ways to engage their customers in stores using the phone, rather than have them disinter-mediated and price checking on the web.

Finally, along came the iPad. Now personally, I’m not much of a fan (to clarify – I’m not a fan of it as a consumer device. I do think it rocks as a business and health care tool), but I am, of course in the significant minority. The thing that most people seem to like about the iPad is they can take it anywhere and putter with it in the most relaxed circumstances. And this matters to retailers because just like the multi-channel phenomenon brought us more profitable customers, the iPad phenomenon is bringing us shoppers who spend more money than those using an Android device or PC. I’m quoting NetworkWorld quoting John Squire, Chief Strategy Officer at IBM Coremetrics. “The iPad user is converting – meaning they’re buying something – almost twice as frequently as other mobile users [Android or iPhone]…but they also buy more than the average PC shopper or average mobile shopper. “

On some levels this is a fairly obvious piece of data – the iPad isn’t cheap, so it’s only natural that those shoppers have more disposable income. But on another level it’s important. In an era when retailers crave knowledge about their most valuable customers, finding out those who are using the iPad is good to know. Delivering special offers to the iPad might be a good idea.

So that brings me back to the title of this article. Is an iPad a mobile device when it’s used for shopping? Or is shopping and spending an outcome of being in a relaxed, pressure-free environment? I’m voting for the relaxed, pressure-free environment angle, which leads me to a final question. Apart from delivering offers and a clean site to these devices it begs another question: if we made our stores more relaxed, less pressure-filled environments, would customers start spending more there too? For me, that’s a really interesting question. And it’s one we’re going to have to explore as an industry.