Mobile overtakes desktop for online shopping, says Adyen

Over half of all online shopping transactions now take place on a mobile device, according to new data from global payments platform Adyen.

The company said that 52% of global e-commerce now takes place on a mobile device, showing that more and more consumers are feeling comfortable about buying via their smartphone as well as researching purchases.

The iPhone is the most popular device for online shopping, followed closely by devices running Android.

However, retailers need to do more to make the buying process as smooth as possible, Adyen’s research suggests.

Roelant Prins, chief commercial officer at Adyen, said: “As consumers shift to mobile, online retailers must refine their checkout experience. On average, we see that during the checkout phase, the customer drop-off rate is 9% higher than on desktop. So there is a huge opportunity for retailers to optimise their checkouts by supporting one-click payments, stored cards, user profiles and much more. If they don’t act, they risk losing out to competitors.”

The research also revealed that when it comes to more expensive purchases, tablets outperform smartphones as the go-to device. This is most likely because their larger size enables closer scrutiny of high-value items, the company suggested. The average purchase price on an iPad is 69% higher than items purchased on the iPhone.

“Ultimately, shopping is all about experiences,” Prins explained. “Retailers need to understand how their customers prefer to shop and provide an experience to match. Mobile is only going to become more important as consumers become increasingly comfortable using new mobile payment methods such as Facebook or WeChat messaging apps, Apple Pay or Pay with Google. Those who provide a seamless experience across mobile web or in app, are giving themselves the best chance for success.”

If you would like to learn more about mobile shopping and connected consumer trends, please read our international research report “The European connected consumer: a life lived online.” Through research that questioned 7,000 consumers, comprising 1,000 from each of Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain and the UK, our report identifies consumer trends and the associated business and legal challenges.

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