Online Trade: Buyers Now Prefer Smartphones Over Computers For E-Shopping

Mobile phones are now the most used media when it comes to online trade and E-shopping. It represents about 55% of the overall traffic and impacts all of the industries. In 2020, smartphones have overtaken computers and other digital tools when it comes to online business, especially due to the Covid-19 crisis.

Following the digital revolution, smartphones are now mostly preferred to computers for E-shopping, especially for purchases under 75 euros. The Covid-19 crisis also increased the popularisation of online business.

Mobile Phones’ Market Share Overtakes E-marketing

According to a study from the platform ContentSquare, mobile phones’ share is quickly developing, even within industries with lower traffic levels. The mobile phone is now the first source of traffic within the following sectors:

• Luxury – 67%
• Fashion – 66%
• Cometics – 66%
• Travels – 51%
• Mass distribution – 57%
• Automotive – 57%
• Energy – 39%
• High Tech – 56%
• Financial services – 39%

Worldwide, 67% of online trade is made via smartphones, including micro-transactions and purchases in numerous sectors. However, computer purchases are still a bit higher than smartphones’ during the week (52%) while smartphones are preferred on the weekends (56%). It is also worth noting that on average, buyers spend 69 euros on their smartphones in 2020, against 100 euros on their computers.

E-shopping More Trending Than Ever After The Covid-19 Crisis

The Covid-19 crisis has benefited online trade a lot. While things are progressively getting back to normal, buyers tend to keep their quarantine habits: according to a study by DS Smith, 87% of the French have expressed the desire to keep shopping online even after the crisis, especially now that 89% of them trust this method.

Payment requests are a method of purchase that gained in popularity during the crisis: it allows the company to send a link to the buyer via email or SMS so they can pay directly. This method is usually used in the B2B buying process but got popularised during quarantine by merchants that didn’t have a website to maintain their sales. The vast majority of payment requests are used for purchases made via smartphones.

The Covid-19 crisis quickly increased E-shopping’s popularity, to the point where grocery shopping online will become more and more usual in the next decade. Food delivery’s popularity has also exploded during the crisis, and nearly 43% of the French have subscribed to a new E-shopping website during the quarantine. According to futurologists, we are now experiencing a new digital transformation concerning online marketing that probably would have taken more time to develop if it wasn’t for the restrictions imposed by the crisis.

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