Will Smartphones Become the Number One Online Shopping Device?

Smartphones are an essential gadget in people’s lives and shape consumers’ daily routines like no other electronic device. Although the different ways of communication – making phone calls, chatting, sending messages or e-mailing – are still the central activities that consumers use their smartphones for, Statista Consumer Insights data shows that most smartphone owners use their devices for a number of other activities. The majority (>50%) of smartphone users in Germany, the U.S. or the UK, for example, use their phones for listening to music, watching videos, online banking or product search. Most people also use their smartphones for online shopping, according to the results of the latest Statista Consumer Insights update. Klarna has taken a closer look at online shopping habits of consumers worldwide and found out that smartphones indeed play an ever greater role in eCommerce:

When taking a look at the device usage data for the period Q2 2021 to Q1 2023 published in Klarna’s 2023 Shopping Pulse report, it turns out that in the course of only two years, computers have significantly lost in relevance as a device used for online shopping, while smartphones are on the rise. Between Q2 2021 and Q1 2023, computers lost six percentage points, from a usage of 54% in Q2 2021 to 48% in Q1 2023 on a global scale. Over the same period, smartphones gained more or less to the same extent – six percentage points. Tablets seem to have found their market share – with 11% in Q1 2023, their usage has remained about stable since Q2 2021. With a current global usage of 40% and the constant upward trend, it is likely that smartphones become the number one device used for online shopping in the near future. A look at age groups supports this assumption. The age group that uses computers the most are the Baby Boomers aged 59 and older – 67% of them use computers for online shopping (smartphones: 22%). Millennials are already very eager smartphone shoppers: 53% of those aged 27 to 42 make online purchases on their smartphones (computers: 39%). Certain countries have already passed the point where smartphones became the most popular online shopping device: In the U.S., Ireland, and Australia, for example, more online shoppers used a smartphone than a computer in the first quarter of 2023. The lead was especially strong in Ireland, where 57% of respondents stated to have used smartphones for online shopping, as opposed to only 33% who shopped on a computer.