PayPal Stories Archive

New research from PayPal UK, Google and OC&C Strategy Consultants has revealed that mobile shopping is growing faster than anyone could have predicted.

 

The Mobile Mandate report is based on an exclusive dataset of anonymised search and transaction data from PayPal UK and Google, with analysis by and additional research from OC&C. It predicts mobile shopping in the UK will treble in the next four years, so much so that by 2020 two thirds or approximately £43 billion of UK e-commerce purchases will be made on a smartphone.

 

There’s just one problem: the report suggests that UK retailers are lagging behind retailers in other parts of the world. For example, half of Britons would prefer customer support via mobile chat, but only 16% of the top 100 UK retailers offer this service. More than twice as many of the top 100 US retailers do so. Furthermore, leading UK retailer sites are on average between 10% and 25% slower to load on smartphone than their US counterparts. Google research shows that improving load times by 1 second can increase conversion rates by almost one third.

 

The report argues that speed is an important factor in any shopping experience, but when it comes to mobile shopping it’s vital. Retailers can reduce the time it takes to browse and select a purchase but if it takes too long to pay, they may lose that sale. It’s a problem that retailers can easily address with one-click checkout services like One Touch.

 

The next evolution of mobile shopping will reduce the consumer journey even further. Contextual commerce will enable consumers to buy things at the point of discovery – whether that’s in an email, on a Pinterest page or in a messenger app – rather than needing to click through to an online shop.

 

For us, it all adds up to one thing: there’s never been a better time to be a consumer, as mobile promises to improve the shopping experience immeasurably. And, although the pace of change can seem challenging, it’s an exciting time for retailers too.