With a quarter of us in the UK now owning a smartphone1, it’s no surprise that the nation should turn to the mobile internet to avoid waiting in line when it comes to everyday jobs like grocery shopping, banking and arranging appointments. New research from Three shows that 63 per cent of us rely on our phones to avoid queues and more than one in every two of us (53 per cent) are finding that using the mobile internet is also helping us claw back some precious time.
With Christmas fast approaching and high street queues expected to be typically long, we have pulled together some top tips to help you stay cheerful this festive season.
Three’s top 3 tips to avoid the queues with your smartphone:
1. Scan & Go. Smart supermarkets are beginning to create scan and shop apps, where you can use your smartphone to scan item barcodes using the camera as you go around the store, saving you precious time at the checkout.
2. Mobile boarding passes. Many travel companies, like Eurostar and British Airways, have apps that allow you to download your boarding pass onto your smartphone, saving you time printing out the passes beforehand.
3. Family fun. If you are planning on heading to a popular theme park, chances are there is a free app you can download that’ll help you stay ahead of the game with live queue times on the top rides around the park.
Research was competed by One Poll in October 2012 with sample size of 2,000 across the UK.
1 Ofcom. http://media.ofcom.org.uk/2012/07/18/uk-is-now-texting-more-than-talking/
