2015 was the year of mobile shopping. That’s the key finding of the latest quarterly Demandware Shopping Index, which measures digital commerce growth. The index represents an analysis of same site data over time and incorporates the behavioural data of over 400m shoppers interacting with those sites. Demandware sourced data from digital commerce sites transacting on the Demandware Commerce Cloud that were live throughout 2015 and 2014.

After years of observing the rise of mobile, the use of phones finally took over in 2015 to remain one of the most transformative technologies for retailers. In the UK, phones accounted for all the growth in visits and baskets and the majority of share of order growth. This translates into a net loss in visits and baskets on tablets and computers. Tablets saw reduced traffic and order share, down 11 per cent and 6 per cent respectively. Overall, phones’ traffic share rose 36 per cent to 42 per cent and order share was up 37 per cent to 31 per cent.

“In 2015, the shopper went mobile, and this is driving the mobile-first mandate for retailers,” said Rick Kenney, head of consumer insights at Demandware. “More and more shoppers are interacting with brands for the first time through their mobile devices. Particularly when targeting millennials, who overwhelmingly experience a brand for the first time on their phone, it is necessary to provide a simple and quick experience.”

Beyond the increasing prominence of phones, the study highlighted a number of other trends that are likely to continue across the UK in 2016. The first is reduced time on site. Demandware found reductions in both average time per visit (down 13 per cent) and average time per phone visit (down 20 per cent) in Q4. The rise of personalisation will likely perpetuate this trend as retail brands make it more efficient for shoppers to interact and purchase across channels, it believes.

The second trend is increased cart creation – Baskets are now the currency of cross-channel engagement, with Q4 showing an overall increase in cart rate creation. This is a good sign for omnichannel retailers that rely on carts to bridge the gap from digital to store. Finally, the study found that shopper expectations are rising. Not only do shoppers expect free shipping and discounts, but increasingly, they prefer an experience that is customised and exclusive to them.

You can access the full report here.