Smartphone shopping will account for two thirds of all UK e-commerce by 2020 – that’s according to a new report from PayPal UK, Google and OC&C Strategy Consultants.

This means that approximately £43 billion of e-commerce purchases in the UK will be made on a smartphone device, as the value of mobile transactions trebles from £13.5 billion over the next four years.

The report – which is based on search and transaction data from Google and PayPal UK, with analysis and additional research from OC&C – also predicts that 80 per cent or £57 billion of all online retail sales in the UK will involve a smartphone by 2020, either through transactions, research or price comparisons.

However, despite consumers’ rapid shift to mobile, overall, UK retailers are lagging behind US and Asian competitors on mobile readiness, the study noted.
According to consumer research undertaken as part of the report, speed is the most important factor when shopping online, but on average, leading UK retailer sites are between 10 per cent and 25 per cent slower to load on smartphone than their US counterparts.

Furthermore, half of Britons (48 per cent) would prefer customer support via mobile chat, but only 16 per cent of the top 100 UK retailers offer this service, while more than twice as many of the top 100 US retailers do so (41 per cent).

Alex Mathers, associate partner at OC&C Strategy Consultants said: “Smartphone shopping is taking over online retail, bringing with it fundamental changes in how, when and where people shop. Brits are shopping more whilst out and about, they’re using mobile to research and compare prices for later purchases, and they’re spending more on mobile while in-store – very often with other retailers.

“There’s money to be made by tapping into these changing behaviours, but on the flip side, retailers that fail to adapt will find themselves haemorrhaging customers. Right now, the average UK retailer’s strategy should be mobile first – and in a few years, it may well be mobile only.”

Rob Harper, mobile commerce director at PayPal UK, added: “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. Mobile technology is determining the future of e-commerce, and retailers need to act now to prepare themselves accordingly.”

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