The majority of tablet and smartphone owners in Germany use their mobile devices also for shopping, a recent survey by the German e-commerce association bevh, conducted in cooperation with Creditreform Boniversum GmbH (Boniversum), revealed.
According to the survey results, two thirds (64%) of mobile device owners now shop via their phones and tablets, which corresponds to a 7% increase, compared to 57% in 2014. While men and young people dominate mobile commerce, the increased use of mobile devices for shopping could be observed among all age and income groups.
While consumers aged 18-39 have already got used to mobile shopping (80% in 2015, 74% in 2014), the penetration among persons aged 40 or older also exceeded 50% for the first time (54% in 2015 vs 48% in 2014). The percentage among men remains slightly above average with 67% (59% in 2014) but women are catching up with 61% (56% in 2014).
“The continuous growth rates show that mobile commerce is establishing itself more and more and has become something normal for all consumers across all social groups. This channel plays a vital role in the customer journey – especially in terms of inspiration and research,” bevh executive director Christoph Wenk-Fischer said.
As for mobile payment options, a somewhat different trend could be observed. For the first time since the launch of the survey in 2011, slightly fewer users selected mobile payment service providers this year compared to the previous year (48% in 2015 vs 50% in 2014). In contrast, the traditional payment options (38%) and payment via the network providers (12%) increased slightly by one percentage point each.
“The payment methods of the payment service providers are well established by now and are being used by nearly 50% of the consumers. Nevertheless, online trade should still have a wide range of payment options to avoid consumers abandoning their shopping baskets. After all, the other half of the mobile shoppers also uses traditional payment options or those of the network providers," Ralf Zirbes, Boniversum Managing Director, said.
For the survey, which was conducted for the fifth year in a row, over 1,000 German consumers were interviewed on their use of smartphones and tablets for shopping and payment via internet this spring.
