Retail Technology Innovation Hub

SmartTVs and wearable devices have yet to make an impact on shopping patterns, according to the annual Shopper Stock Take report from Shoppercentric, involving 1,020 UK consumers.

Computers/laptops were cited as the most used touchpoint – up 6% on 2017 to 63%. In second place was smartphones with a 18% increase on last year, to 45%. Tablets secured the third place spot with 29%, up 8% on 2017. And despite a number of retailers and brands moving away from catalogues, usage by shoppers rose to 22%, up 4% on 2017.

In terms of smartphones, the most striking shifts in usage were at the points of trigger and transaction. There has been a 7% increase (to 58%) in the number of shoppers that have been triggered to shop by content on their smartphone. Carrying out ‘research’ has remained on a par with last year at 61%. However, finding an item has risen by 4%, to 60%. There has also been a significant 7% increase in the number of shoppers using their devices to buy a product – now accounting for 42%.

Whilst 18-34 year olds are those most likely to use their smartphones to shop (66%), even 65+ year olds showed a year-on-year increase of 11 to 16%. In fact, 65+ year olds are just as likely as 18-24 year olds to shop on a computer/pc (64 vs 65% respectively) and 65+ year olds are more likely to use a tablet than 18-24 year olds (32 vs 25% respectively).