London - More than half of all online shopping is now done from mobile phones and tablet devices, latest figures have shown.
A survey of major retailers revealed, for the first time, browsing and buying by customers on the move – or slumped on sofas – has overtaken traffic from desktop computers.
The survey showed that 52 percent of all visits to retailers’ websites in the past three months were from mobile devices, compared with just three percent in 2010.
Of the £24.2-billion spent online between May and July, £8.7-billion was from mobile devices – accounting for 36 percent of all purchases and 40 percent of clothing sales.
“This is a huge landmark in mobile commerce,” said Tina Spooner, director at online retail trade association IMRG, which carries out the survey every three months and tracks customer habits across more than 40 retailers from Marks & Spencer to Millets. “This represents staggering growth over the past four years.”
In the same months last year, 34 percent of website visits were from mobile devices, accounting for only 23 percent of sales.
The enormous shift in consumer shopping habits has seen retailers redesign websites to make it easier for customers to shop on smaller screens.
Mark Lewis, online director at John Lewis, said: “Over half of the traffic to johnlewis.com comes from mobile and tablet devices, and we’ve also seen an increase in the conversion rate of traffic to sales.” - Daily Mail