One in 10 retail-related searches now takes place on a mobile device, according to the latest figures from the British Retail Consortium. Total retail search volumes increased 35 per cent in Q3, 2011, compared to the same quarter a year earlier, with the increased driven by a 168 per cent year-on-year increase in mobile search volumes.

The top 10 retail search terms in Q3, 2011 (in alphabetical order), were: Beds, Dresses, Flowers, HP Touchpad, iPad, iPhone 5, Lego, Recipes, Wedding Dresses, and Xbox.

“Mounting pressures on household budgets may be generating more online retail searches, as people work harder to compare prices and track down value,” says Stephen Robertson, director general of the British Retail Consortium. “While searches grew 35 per cent, their fastest this year, the BRC’s Retail Sales Monitor shows growth in online spending has actually slowed to 10 per cent, suggesting extra searches are a symptom of bargain-hunting. Even so, online retailing is still expanding quickly, compared with selling through stores, and searching from mobile devices is showing the most dramatic increase. Retailers are engaging with, and encouraging, this shift in shopping behaviour by providing more and easier ways to search and shop via smartphones and tablets.”