Retailers might want to step up their online marketing techniques as recent research has found that developments in smartphone ownership is pushing up the number of people who access retail websites through their mobiles.
The study, conducted by comScore, found that 13.5 million users in France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the UK accessed online retail sites through their mobiles. This accounts for five.eight per cent of all mobile subscribers during the three month period to the end of May.
While this is still a relatively small section of the market, it has grown by 80 per cent over the course of the past year, with the UK growth level even higher at 163 per cent.
Jeremy Copp, comScore Europe’s vice-president for mobile, commented, “Over the past year, online retailers enjoyed strong growth in visitation from mobile devices in Europe, largely driven by the acceleration in smartphone ownership.
“This trend represents both an opportunity and a threat for retailers. While mobile access offers retailers incremental occasions to engage with customers, it also provides customers the ability to easily compare prices at competing retailers while inside a particular retailer’s store.”
He added that retailers need to really understand consumer behaviour with regards to mobile shopping if they want to make the most of the opportunity presented to them.
Online marketers might be interested to learn that browsers were used to access retail site’s more than applications. In fact, less than 3 per cent of smartphone users in France, Italy and Spain accessed the sites through applications. Germany also showed a higher percentage of users accessing retail activities through browsers. But the UK proved to be the exception, with ten per cent of smartphone owners using browsers, while 11.six per cent reported using applications.
Mr Coop suggested that applications will become increasingly important, “especially as consumers start to transact over their phones with greater regularity”.
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