British online buying habits revealed
by Gemma Taylor 08:31AM - Tue 19th June 2012
Monday is the busiest day of the week for shopping via mobiles, according to research released by online retailer Play.com.
Between 7 and 8am on Mondays, browsing sees its biggest surge as consumers search for new items from the comfort of their bed or during the early morning commute, while this is extended an hour later in the week as the highest levels of user activity occur between 6 and 8am.
The e-tailer, which was sold to Japan-based internet services company Rakuten in a deal worth just £25 million last year, claims to see its highest browsing figures and sales volumes between 8 and 10pm every Monday as consumers beat the Monday blues with retail therapy.
General online sales fare well on Thursday morning, the second most popular day of the week as shoppers purchase high value electrical goods and big ticket items ahead of the weekend.
While this news will be welcomed by the struggling homewares sector, impulse buys remain high on the priority list for cash-strapped consumers, with fashion and literature the most popular impulse purchase items.
Users take an average of just 40 seconds to view clothing prior to purchase and just under a minute on books, compared to more expensive, technological purchases such as TVs with an average dwell time of around two minutes.
Adam Stewart, Marketing Director of Rakuten’s Play.com, explained the findings. “Whilst mobile shopping is gaining significant momentum, our findings show that it’s still a tech savvy audience that’s making that leap to mobile commerce,” he said.
“Consumers through the mobile channels are more likely than their desktop counterparts to purchase new technology and invest in blu-rays.”
Earlier this month, IMRG Capgemini’s Quarterly Benchmarking Index found that transactions via mobile accounted for 8.2 per cent of all online trading during the first quarter of this year, an increase of more than 2,000 per cent from Q1 two years ago.
Speaking at the time, Chris Webster, Head of Retail and Technology at Capgemini, said: “The potential importance of mobile as a channel had been established and we are now seeing this translate into site visits and sales.
“We have yet to appreciate fully the impact of the mobile device in all its glory.”