New e-commerce study: Mobile online shopping is on the rise

A new study by AudienceProject shows that more and more people in the Nordics use their mobile for online purchases and that the Nordic online shoppers increasingly tend to switch between different devices when shopping online

Online shopping in the Nordics has reached a high and steady level with 89% doing online purchases. Last year 88% were shopping online showing that the online shopping level among the Nordic population has hardly changed. However, the devices used when shopping online has. This is one of the key outtakes from a new e-commerce study conducted by the marketing technology company AudienceProject.

Mobile shopping on the rise

Since last year, the use of desktop has slightly decreased while the use of tablet has slightly increased. Additionally, the use of mobile has increased, but in a more drastic way. More specifically, the use of mobile has increased by 25% from 2015 to 2016. Especially the younger age groups use their mobiles for online shopping. Among the groups from 15-25 and 36-45, 33% use their mobiles for online purchases, while this is the case for 44% in the age group between 25-36.

Jacob Lachmann, CEO at AudienceProject, says, “The change in usage of devices in e-commerce is caused by the perfect mobile storm, where several things are happening simultaneously - like Google’s focus on mobile-friendliness, larger screens on devices, more out of the box responsive shopping platforms, a general higher habitual use of mobile in all usage situations, as well a number of other catalysts all encouraging the use of mobile for shopping”

And he continues:

“Either way the study sends a clear message to the e-commerce platforms that have not yet adapted their platforms for mobile devices to take this seriously. Desktop is still the preferred device when doing online purchases, but mobile has now developed into a mature platform and need to be a part of any e-commerce strategy.”

Multiple devices in use

In addition to the tendency towards a more frequent use of mobile in connection with online shopping, the study by AudienceProject shows that the Nordics increasingly switch between devices and use different devices in combination when shopping online.

On average, half of the Nordic online shoppers switch between devices when doing online purchases, and among the age group 15-35 this is the case for two out of three. When looking more specifically on the devices used when shopping online, the combination of mobile and desktop is the most common, with 68% of the shoppers using this combination. This shows that consumers tend to begin their online shopping on mobile and end it on desktop.

“The use of different devices in combination when shopping online illustrates the importance of having cross device customer data for better recognition through the buying process. E-commerce platforms need to focus on cross-device buying funnels, all the way from product awareness to the actual purchase,” says Jacob Lachmann.