The latest research from the comScore MobiLens service shows that one in eight European smartphone owners has completed a retail transaction on their mobile phone. The study, which looked at mobile commerce across France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the United Kingdom, noted that 19.5 million smartphone users across these ‘EU5’ countries had accessed retail content, with 75% of them conducting and completing a purchase. That’s over 14.5 million mobile shoppers across Europe.
16.6% of the EU5 smartphone audience accessed online retail sites and apps in May 2012, up from 12% last year. Spain was the fastest growing market, increasing by 141% year-on-year to nearly 2 million smartphone users, while the UK had the largest number of smartphone shoppers - almost 6.5 million - but the least rapid growth rate (74%).
Hesham Al-Jehani, European mobile product manager at comScore, said “E-Commerce has become central to many consumers’ digital lives over the past few years, but we are now observing a rapid increase in the emergence of m-commerce, where consumers visit retail sites or use dedicated apps and ultimately make on-device purchases. While smaller screen sizes can be an impediment to people conducting transactions on mobile devices, retailers have responded to the changing consumer environment by simplifying the transaction processes and improving the mobile experience to facilitate on-the-go purchasing.”
Clothing and accessories was the most popular retail category, accounting for 4.3% of the total smartphone audience. This means just over a third of all people who made a purchase on their smartphone bought clothing or accessories. Books (excluding eBooks) was the second-placed category, followed by consumer electronics/household appliances, tickets and personal care/hygiene products.