According to a comScore report, European smartphone owners accessing retail websites has grown by 43 per cent in the last year. The company used data across five leading EU markets - France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the UK. The study showed that the European mobile retail audience grew significantly over the past year, with 20 per cent of smartphone owners shopping while on the move.
Figures shared in the comScore report show that in the three-month average ending August of this year, 20,4 per cent of EU5 smartphone owners accessed online retail websites. This is an increase of 2.8 percentage points in the past year. Spain was the fastest growing market out of the countries covered, experiencing a growth rate of 66.5 per cent (by audience), almost hitting 3.3 million.
3 month average ending August 2013 vs August 2012
As the above chart shows, Italy came in second with a growth rate of 61.3 per cent to just shy of 5.6 million smartphone owners accessing retail websites on their device. However, should we look at the year-on-year growth of Italy, the market comes in first with a 4.8 percentage point increase, hitting 19.3 per cent of smartphone owners accessing retail websites in a month.
Germany led the pack in terms of audience size, with 9.9 million smartphone owners accessing said websites in a month. The UK came in second with 9.7 million. Across Europe, it's clear to see a strong trend of more shopping being carried out on the mobile phone.
Smartphone owners enjoy taking photos in retail stores
The same report showed that nearly a quarter of smartphone owners (23.5 per cent) captured a photo of products in a retail store. To follow on from this finding, Europeans also look to seek advice from friends and family when making decisions in-store. 14.3 per cent sent a photo of a product, while 14.0 per cent called or texted friends and family about a product.
3 month average ending August 2013
It's interesting to see photo capturing still topping the chart, while scanning barcodes and comparing prices are still some way down the list.
1 in 7 Europeans purchase something on their smartphone
A rather interesting part of the report looked at how many smartphone owners actually made a purchase on their mobile device. It was found that 1 in 7 (14.6 per cent) purchased goods or services in August 2013. Mobile commerce transactions have increased by 37 per cent from 16.6 million in August 2012 to 22.8 million in August 2013.
the below chart breaks down the type of goods and services purchased on smartphones:
3 month average ending August 2013
How much shopping do you do on your Windows Phone? Let us know in the comments.
Source: comScore
