eCommerce: Shopping Devices

What are the Most Popular Devices for Online Shopping 2023? Smartphones, Laptops or Tablets?

All the different devices for online shopping have their advantages for different situations and places. Find out which are the most used devices for internet purchases and how they differ across countries.

January 24, 2024

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Most Popular Devices for Online Shopping: Key Insights

  • Smartphone Dominance: Smartphones are leading global online shopping, with China and India showing high adoption rates due to accessibility and convenience.

  • Laptop Versatility: Laptops show consistent usage rates across all global regions. This reflects their high penetration and instinctive use for online shopping.

  • Diverse Shopping Devices: There are many ways to buy products. In addition to smartphones and laptops, there are tablets and desktop PCs, as well as smart TVs, speakers, and streaming devices.


Different devices have distinct advantages and disadvantages for online shopping. Sitting on the subway and wanting to kill some time by looking for new clothes to buy? A few taps on your smartphone and you can start browsing. Shopping for a new gaming PC might require more research and a detailed comparison, so your desktop might be the best solution. Let’s see which devices are most popular in different countries.

Smartphone is the Most Used Device for Shopping

Smartphones are most commonly used for online shopping. They are most popular in China, where 92% of respondents to the 2023 Statista Global Consumer Survey said they use their phones to shop online, followed by India with 88%.

USAGE OF SMARTPHONES FOR ONLINE SHOPPING, 2023

73% of people in the U.S. use their smartphones to shop, compared to 69% in countries like the UK and 64% in Germany, where it is still the most popular shopping device. Shopping with your smartphone benefits from its accessibility, allowing you to browse and buy from anywhere. With features like instant purchases, real-time tracking, and secure payments, it streamlines the shopping experience, making it efficient and accessible on the go.

Beyond smartphones, laptops are consistently the second most used device for online shopping across all countries observed. While India has a high penetration of online shoppers who shop online via laptops (at 50% of respondents), other countries follow not far behind, such as Germany (45%) and the UK with the U.S. (both at 43%). Only China lags a little at 35%. Laptop shopping provides a larger screen experience, allowing for more in-depth product exploration and comparison.

The next most popular devices are tablets and desktop PCs. 29% of respondents in China and the U.S. use tablets for online shopping, while 28% in the UK use tablets for purchases as well. While tablet shopping combines portability with a larger screen than smartphones, tablets are less widely used than other devices because a tablet does not provide a critical addition to the smartphones and laptops that most people who shop online already use.

25% of respondents from Germany use tablets to shop online, while 24% of online shoppers from India also use tablets. Again, we see consistent usage rates across countries, suggesting universal preferences for shopping online with these devices.

India Leads the Trend Towards Hands-Free Shopping Devices

Desktop PCs are most used in Germany with 32% of respondents. This is followed by India with 26% and the USA with 25%. Desktop PC shopping offers an online shopping experience with a large screen and enhanced processing power. It provides more detailed product views, efficient multitasking, and a comfortable environment for extended browsing sessions and therefore is more comfortable for older demographics.

MOST POPULAR DEVICES FOR ONLINE SHOPPING, 2023

Smart TVs are most widely used in India, where 21% of respondents said they use them for shopping. This is followed by the US at 15%, with lower usage rates in Germany and the UK at 9%, and China in the middle at 11%. Smart TVs are less likely to be used to shop for new clothes, for example, and more likely to be used to buy movies, TV shows and music, and therefore have a relatively low usage rate for online shopping.

More niche products include smart speakers and streaming devices like Amazon's Fire TV stick. Smart speakers and smart devices add a hands-free dimension to online shopping, allowing users to effortlessly browse, select and purchase items using voice commands. As with smart TVs, smart speakers are most popular for online shopping in India, with 18% of respondents using them. 11% of U.S. respondents also use smart speakers for online shopping, while in China, Germany, and the UK, this device is used less, with usage ranging from 6% to 7%.

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Most Popular Devices for Online Shopping: Closing Remarks

The most popular devices for online shopping are smartphones, with extremely high usage in China and India. Other countries such as the U.S., Germany or the U.K. cannot reach such high numbers because the shopping experience in these countries is more distributed across different devices. Also, in China and India, everyday life is focused on paying and shopping with smartphones, which explains its high popularity.

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