17 per cent of mobile shoppers use mobile ads to research their mCommerce purchases, according to a report from BuzzCity.

By comparison, 14 per cent make purchase based on review and comparison sites, and 17 per cent rely on friends’ recommendations. At 44 per cent, search engines are still the primary way to find information on purchases, followed by social media at 35 per cent.

The quarterly report shows an all-time high in the consumer appetite for mCommerce. Thats thanks to a number of factors, including diminishing fears over the security of mobile payments – down to three per cent, from 27 per cent a year.

“Users are getting more comfortable purchasing on mobile,” BuzzCity CEO KF Lai told Mobile Marketing. “We have Apple to thank for a lot of that, for making it so simple to make purchases in the App Store. It has meant that consumers become more confident to buy on their mobiles, and fear of security issues has decreased.”

74 per cent of consumers use mobile for last-minute purchases, the report also found. What people are buying on their mobiles has started to shift, too, with physical products like clothes and electronics catching up to digital entertainment content – in the UK, the former makes up 56 per cent of mCommerce purchases.

Finally, the report also looked at mobile advertising in emerging markets. The number of mobile ad banners being served exploded across the countries examined – with a growth of 46 per cent in India, 39 per cent in Indonesia, 57 per cent in South Africa, and 68 per cent in Nigeria.

Coming to London

BuzzCity also announced the opening of a London office, with it says will provide direct support for agencies and international mobile content players.

“We have had an office in Paris for three years, and we realised our guys were coming over to London more and more,” said Lai. “As well as local media buying, a lot of international buying happens from London, especially for emerging markets. That prompted us to make sure we have people grounded here, and it will benefit us as well.

“In countries like the UK, theres a lot of experimentation in mobile, and maybe it doesnt work, but youll see a couple of things that people start using repeatedly because they work, and then those get exported over into emerging markets. The UK doesnt have such a compelling case for mobile banking, compared to the successes of M-Pesa in Kenya, where physicals banks are much harder to reach. But in terms of media practices – how do you do rich media ad on tablets, how do you engage users – it tends to come from the West.”