Brits are twice as likely as Americans to buy on mobile: stats

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Posted 20 April 2012 10:58am by Graham Charlton with 0 comments

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It seems that the UK's shoppers have adapted to mobile shopping more than their US counterparts. In the UK, mobile accounts for 9.1% of all e-commerce sales, compared with 4.6% across the pond. 

These stats come from RichRelevance's 2012 Q1 Shopping Insights Mobile Study, and are based on more than 1.1bn shopping sessions on UK and US retail websites (including mass merchants, as well as small and specialty retailers) up to 25 March 2012. 

Here are some highlights from the study, and well as an infographic summarising the key findings... 

Mobile commerce continues to grow

• In March, mobile accounted for 9.1% of all UK e-commerce sales, up from 8.2% since Christmas. 
• In March, the average purchase on mobile was £109.68 compared to £100.05 on desktop.
• As indicated by other stats we have seen, iPads are a big deal. The iPad accounted for 82% of all mobile spend.
• Unlike previous stats average order values (AOV) in March were highest on iPhones. 
• March iPhone purchases averaged £135.63 compared to £119 on other mobile devices, £111.41 on the iPad and £107.70 on desktop. 

Conversion rates

• Not surprisingly, conversion rates were highest on desktop, at 3.6% in March. 
• The iPad was next, with 2.9%, followed by iPhone (1.2%) and other devices (1%).

iPad users shop for longer

• Shoppers on the iPad viewed the most pages, logging an average of 9.89 pageviews per session in March compared to 8.86 pages on desktop, 5.16 pages on other mobile devices and 4.34 pages on iPhones. 
• The iPad's share of shopping sessions (viewing, not necessarily buying) increases on the weekends, reaching 10% compared to 8.2% during the week.
• The peak days for shopping on iPad are Wednesday and Sunday, during which 11% of shopping sessions happened on the device.
• The iPad's share of sessions is greater during evenings, with peaks at 4pm, 8pm and 10pm. 
• This suggests greater use of the device during leisure time, possibly as a second screen. 

UK and US habits compared

• Brits were nearly twice as likely to spend on mobile as Americans, where mobile accounted for only 4.6% of revenue.
• For US shoppers, the average order value in March was $158 for iPad compared with $105 for other mobile devices and $104 for iPhone (and other iOS devices). 
• The share of shopping sessions on iPads also rose in the US on weekends, though it only reached 7% on weekends compared to 5% during the week.