Almost half of online shopping is now done on smartphones

Adobes latest Digital Economy Index has revealed this week that almost half (44 per cent) of online shopping is now done on a smartphone. 

In fact, the UK is outpacing the global average with £217,000 spent online per minute in Q1 2021, valued at £28bn.

The data uses Adobe Analytics to analyse tens-of-billions of visits to retail sites from UK consumers. For the first time, the data has been accompanied by a UK consumer survey (conducted January-March 2021) to provide a view of eCommerce trends, sampling 1,000 participants.

Results show that online sales in the UK saw a significant jump, growing 54 per cent year-over-year (YoY) in Q1, reaching £28bn in spend. For comparison, US online sales grew 39 per cent YoY, and the global average growth figure was 38 per cent. 

The pandemic has accelerated a surge in online spending, with global eCommerce reaching £635bn in Q1 this year alone. More people have reported shopping online during the pandemic because they feel safer (45 per cent), while 63 per cent of people have shopped online to help relieve stress during the pandemic. This is particularly prominent in GenZ (54 per cent) and millennials (43 per cent).

Only 42 per cent planned on attending a shopping centre in the next six months – 44 per cent of UK consumers said they planned to spend their time in pubs, bars, and restaurants instead.