UK shoppers to spend £25bn on mobile this year, fashion is top

By

Sandra Halliday

Published
Jan 18, 2019

UK consumers will spend £10 billion more ordering goods via their smartphones and tablets this year, adding up to a total of £25 billion, a new consumer survey shows.

And with clothing the most popular product bought online by survey respondents (69% of them), that’s going to make a big impact on the fashion sector, especially on any companies whose mobile websites or apps are still under par.

Price comparison specialist uSwitch surveyed 2,000 UK adults last month and said the results add further weight to the need for retailers to have a mobile-first strategy.

It said that 30 million UK consumers will shop via their smartphones this year, which is 12 million people more than in 2018, or 66% higher.

And with 58% of consumers currently using a smart device of some type to shop online, that means more of them are doing so than presently visit shopping centres (56%).

The main reason for smartphone shopping is convenience (66%) and with 64% of respondents saying that their smart device allows them to shop at any time, that adds further weight to the convenience theme. 

Some 40% said they use their phones to comparison shop and 36% think e-shopping in general offers better value.

We already know that fashion is the top category for people to shop online and the survey showed that Amazon is the most popular site (89%), followed by eBay (63%), Argos (41%), Tesco (35%) and M&S (25%).

“For so many of us now, our smartphone is an extension of our hand and we have it with us at all times, meaning that we can shop whenever and wherever we like. Our handsets allow us to window shop all the time, and if we see something we like, it is right there at our fingertips,” said Ru Bhikha, mobiles specialist at uSwitch.