Rakuten Looks at Mobile Shopping Habits

Rakuten - the parent company of online retailer Play.com - has released insights into the shopping habits of different nations, which show, somewhat unsurprisingly, that Brits and Americans prefer to do their mobile shopping while commuting.

In both the US and UK, peak times for mobile browsing occurs in the morning. The US peak in morning browsing occurs at around 10am, but in the UK, probably reflecting the greater use of public transport, it surges at 7-8am.

In France, on the other hand, shoppers are most likely to use a mobile device to shop on their way home from work, at 6-7pm.

In terms of dwell time, meanwhile, mobile and desktop shoppers spend longer on more expensive items - with US shoppers spending 4.4-4.7 minutes searching and considering before buying items including computers, electronics, and clothing and bags, compared to 3 minutes for lower priced items.

One country that stands out as different in this respect is Brazil, where relatively high-value mobile phones typically see very low dwell times, suggesting consumers have already researched products online and then will make a purchase based solely on price.

"These findings demonstrate how eCommerce has become a part of our everyday lives, making retail more pervasive than it has ever been," says Adam Stewart, marketing director of Play.com. "Thanks to mobile devices, consumers in the UK are now able to make purchases during their commute, while in France parents can now order groceries online while looking after the children, without having to drag them to the supermarket. Consumers still make considered choices, taking longer to decide on more expensive items, but in certain cases, savvy shoppers are clearly doing their research before purchasing, harnessing the power of the internet and social networks to make informed choices."