According to Ofcom UK residents are using mobile devices more and more often in order to surf the web. This can be attributed to the fact that 58% of them have smartphones while increasing is also the percentage of tablet owners (19%).
This article is written with the aim of providing information about the device preferences throughout the day, the amount of megabytes that the average person is downloading per month and to also compare these data with the corresponding numbers of other countries. Furthermore, we will discuss how people spend their time when they are browsing the web through smartphones or tablets and will become more detailed when it comes to online shopping.
To start by examining which devices are dominating each hour of our day, comScore claims through its well-made infographic that mobiles are more popular during early hours, PC’s while we are working and finally tablets are being preferred at night.
Image source: http://www.smartinsights.com/mobile-marketing/mobile-marketing-analytics/mobile-marketing-statistics/
In general UK consumers are using mobile devices to access the Internet more often than people from other countries do. This is also obvious from the amount of megabytes that the average UK consumer downloads through his mobile phone. In fact during December 2011, this number was 424 megabytes of data per person and it was higher than that of Japan (392 megabytes) and US (319 megabytes).
Another reason for the increasing use of mobile devices for surfing the web (16% of all web traffic) is the popularity of Social Media networks. To be exact 40% of the UK adults are using their mobile phones in order to visit Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Instagram and other platforms while the same percentage rises up to 62% when it comes to the age group of 18-24. If you are interested in learning more about this topic then the following article might be proved really useful “A 2013 Social Media Report; UK User Demographics & Their Suitability According to a Company’s Target Group”.
Apart from socialising, UK consumers are also using their mobile phones in order to shop online and it is impressive that they are once again first regarding the time and money that they spent each year. More specifically, over one fifth of the UK based smartphone owners are using their devices in order to visit retail shops and make purchases. Second this time comes Germany with a percentage of 22.6%.
But what is of real importance to business owners is to understand who, when, where and what kind of products do consumers shop through their mobiles, as well as, engaging in other beneficial activities like scanning barcodes, commenting in purchases etc. To reply in these questions we thought that it would be useful to present the recent uSamp research’s results through some personal made infographics.
As you can see at the above chart 45% of the male and 34% of the female population made a mobile purchase during 2012, while remarkable is the fact that 46% of men and 32% of women used their mobiles for a payment. Moreover, more than 87% of us seem to have scanned a barcode in the past and there are not few those who decided to write a review for or comment on a purchase.
Another trend that we can clearly see is that of mobile coupons with 35% of men and 44% of women having redeemed one in the last year. In our opinion providing your customers with digital coupons either through a company’s website or through newsletters and Social Media is much more efficient than the solution of Groupon etc. The reason is that whereas Groupon and in general discount sites give to the public the impression that your business is striving, the other mentioned ways can be a great way to increase customer loyalty and make people feel that their trust is being appreciated. For more information and business guidance feel free to contact us (Optimise Web).
In the question what kind of products do people purchase via their mobiles, it seems that the most common category is that of Digital content with movie and event tickets and consumer electronics following. Other categories include food or drinks, office supplies, health and beauty items, luxury goods and computer equipment.
Finally as far as the place where men and women do their mobile shopping is concerned, a big amount of them (25% of males and 15% of females) shop while working, around 10% in the waiting room, 3% in class and 2% during meetings.
With the fast growth of mobile technologies and mobile shopping the only question remaining is whether you want to be part of the game. If so a specialised mobile website is more than necessary and our many years of relevant experience and highly successful projects a guarantee for your results. Learn more about Mobile Websites and Apps at our company’s website.
Sources:
http://media.ofcom.org.uk/2012/12/13/uk-a-nation-of-hi-tech-tv-lovers-3/
http://pinterest.com/pin/247979523204575079/
http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/datablog/2012/dec/13/uk-online-obsession-ofcom-latest-figures
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Written by Elsa Sakki
Topics: Online Marketing