Brits are European leaders in m-commerce

Tuesday, March 18, 2014 - 11:13 by Paul Tissington

A new report from TNS has found that consumers in the UK are shopping online from their mobile devices in greater numbers and with more regularity than any of their European counterparts.

The study, commissioned by search giant Google, looked at 18 different nations in the EU and found that, proportionally, the number of British adults who make online purchases from their smartphones is higher than anywhere else.

Thirty two per cent of shoppers in the UK make an m-commerce order monthly, ahead of the eight per cent who do so in France.

Sweden's 19 per cent monthly m-commerce penetration rate is the second highest, showing that in Britain, there really is a significant lead for this type of shopping online.

Eighty three per cent of the British consumers questioned in the study said that they go online at least once a day, which is up from 75 per cent in last year's report. Sixty four per cent revealed that they are such fans of the web that their activities extend to harnessing it multiple times in a given 24 hour period, according to Warc.

The report was not just about m-commerce and e-commerce, but about wider web trends, revealing that 66 per cent of people watch videos on their connected devices, while 72 per cent go online to access social media services, like Facebook and Twitter.

The UK has been a leader in online shopping and connected activities for many years, outdoing European contemporaries because of the public's enthusiasm for all things to do with the web.

This has helped to perpetuate the growth of online shopping, because of course, with more people doing it there are more companies willing to offer their products through the web and improve the experience of shopping online for everyone.