More than three out of five (64%) smartphone owners are now using their mobile devices to shop online, a number that has quadrupled since June 2010.
The study by eDigitalResearch and Portaltech Reply also found that an impressive 84% of smartphone owners have used their devices to browse websites, with one third (33%) doing so on a daily basis, whilst three quarters (77%) are using their smartphones to research products.
Derek Eccleston, Head of Research at eDigitalResearch, comments. "These results confirm that m-commerce has fundamentally revolutionised the way in which we shop and browse. The growth of mobile is completely unprecedented and the rate of change that we've tracked over the past two years is alarming. Back in June 2010, we predicted that smartphones were likely to play an increasingly significant part in consumer's busy lifestyles, and whilst in 2011 we found that great strides had been made towards this, these latest set of results demonstrate that this trend is now irreversible. It is therefore essential that all retailers and brands make their mobile channels as accessible as possible to maximise the potential that m-commerce has to offer".
The results also show that growth of mobile shopping shows no signs of slowing down. Almost half (44%) of the smartphone owners surveyed said that they would use their devices to browse more in the coming months, with one third (31%) claiming that they would then go on to make a purchase.
Shopping through an online mobile site has remained more popular than shopping on a mobile app, although it has to be taken into consideration that transactional retail apps are still a key future development for some retailers. The results also seem to suggest that there appears to be preference between shopping online and via an app for some users.
