Heavy social media use correlates with mobile shopping: stats

Mobile commerce is starting to become habitual, according to a new survey, with 2.5m people in the UK making a purchase on a daily basis.

If we just take ‘millenials‘ – 18-34 year olds in other words –  then that figure doubles, with 10% buying on mobile every day.

These stats come from a Criteo study, which aims to ‘measure pleasure’ in mobile shopping. The figures are based on an ICM survey of 2,023 adults in the UK aged 18+, between the 18th and 20th May 2016.

Some key stats from the study…

Heavy social use correlates with mobile shopping

The study finds that social media users are more likely to buy on mobile – 19% of daily Snapchat users, and 15% of daily Instagram and Pinterest users are buying via mobile every day.

mobile commerce stats

It makes sense. If you’re using mobile to access your social networks, then you’re often just a click or two away from a purchase.

Also, sites like Pinterest and Instagram are perfectly suited to showing product imagery, while it looks like ecommerce brands have a potentially valuable audience on Snapchat.

What are people buying on mobile?

Fashion purchases on the internet have often presented a problem, for customers and retailers alike.

Not being able to try before you buy meant that there was always an element of guesswork for shoppers, and this could lead to higher return rates for online fashion than other sectors.

These problems haven’t gone away altogether, but retailers have addressed these issues with on-site tools like size guides, while easy returns processes, and the ability to return items in stores have helped to improve customer confidence.

Indeed, clothing is the most common purchase on mobile, with 23% of respondents buying clothes:

popular mobile products

Younger age groups are much more comfortable buying clothes on mobile too, or maybe it’s just easier before the onset of middle-aged spread.

age groups buying clothes

Where are people shopping on their phones?

Mobile phones potentially allow people to browse and buy anywhere, but we’re more likely to be buying at home than anywhere else.

Yes, it’s often easier to buy on desktop, but I’d guess that, when a phone is always within reach, convenience (or laziness) trumps usability quite often.

mobile where

Why do people buy via their mobiles?

Convenience is the big driver here, and the first three answers given are on a similar theme.

mobile convenience

I think it’s significant that relatively small numbers say it’s easy or pleasurable to buy on mobile. That indicates that retailers still have work to do to improve the user experience for mobile shoppers.

Some retailers, such as Schuh, have really worked on mobile (and have reaped the rewards) but there are still plenty of other issues which make mobile shopping harder. Here’s a snapshot of issues from a recent Practicology/ whatusersdo study:

mobile ux stats

For much more insight into mobile commerce, see out DNA of a Great M-Commerce Site report. This, along with other detailed reports and best practice guides on achieving digital dominance, are available on ClickZ Intelligence

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