Mobile Devices Are Tool of Choice for One-Third of Consumers’ Online Shopping

When consumers make online purchases of food items, retail products, groceries or travel services, a growing share of them are doing it on mobile devices.

The share is especially high when it comes to travel services. Among the consumers who made at least one purchase of travel services in February, 51% used mobile devices to make the online purchases.

Also using mobile devices to make online purchases in February were 17% of retail product buyers, 16% of food item buyers and 8% of grocery buyers, according to Digital Economy Payments, a PYMNTS report based on a survey of 3,250 U.S. consumers.

Get the report: Digital Economy Payments

Among the consumers who purchased travel services or food items, the share who used mobile devices to make online purchases in February was higher than it was in the prior three months.

Among those who bought retail products or groceries in February, the share using mobile devices was slightly lower than it was in January but higher than it was in November and December.

The usage of mobile devices to purchase travel services, in particular, has risen steadily during the past few months. Travel service purchases via mobile device climbed from 43% in November to 44% in December to 48% in January before reaching 51% in February.

As consumers’ usage of mobile devices to make online purchases has grown, their usage of desktop computers and laptops has been eclipsed. In all four categories of products and services included in the survey, consumers’ usage of mobile devices to make online purchases is higher than their usage of desktop computers and laptops.

Mobile devices have become central to consumers’ online shopping activity. At the same time, laptop and desktop computers usage reached an all-time low in each of the four survey areas in February.