New research from Nielsen’s upcoming U.S. Digital Consumer Report reveals that 29 percent of smartphone owners use their phone for shopping-related activities. Top activities among mobile shoppers include in-store price comparisons (38% of mobile shoppers), browsing products through their mobile Web or apps (38%) and reading online product reviews (32%).

Apps, which account for the majority of mobile phone time in the U.S., may be the key to shifting consumers from browsing products on their phone to making purchases on the spot. Although only 9 percent of mobile shoppers have used their phone to pay at the register, the desire to do so is apparent - 71 percent of app downloaders would be interested in an app that allows them to use their phone as a credit card. iPhone users are more interested in this option than Android users, with over a third (39%) saying they would be extremely or very interested in an app with this ability.

App downloads overall are growing as consumers downloaded twice as many Shopping/Retail apps than they did last year.