There was a surge in mobile shopping during Christmas, according to the January Getprice online shopping index traffic.
Getprice experienced a 20 per cent increase in traffic to its mobile site.
According to director of marketing and product at Getprice, David Whiteman, the increase in mobile traffic results comes as no surprise, with mobiles playing an increasingly important role in our lives.
“More than 50 per cent of purchases are now influenced by online research, including mobile. Physical stores are becoming less relevant in terms of being the place shoppers make their researched purchase decisions,” he said.
“What our January site data tells us is that busy working mums are using Getprice at home online and on their mobiles to shop as they don’t have the time to spend long hours trawling the stores with their kids to find the best back to school gear.”
These findings coincide with the ABS retail trade figures for December which showed not elsewhere classified’ retailing, which includes pure play online retailing, jumped 14.7 per cent year-on-year.
Despite this, Whiteman suggests that bricks and mortar retailers have their benefits for the last minute shoppers.
“Bricks and mortar retailers allow for on-the-spot impulse purchasing. Online only represents about five per cent of total retail dollars spent. Instant gratification plays a big role and so too does time constraints. Last minute purchases made in-store are common amongst parents with hectic schedules who lack the time needed to wait for a product to be shipped in,” he said.
Other trends identified in the index include that searches for Apple products dropped 53 per cent with a non-Apple product taking out the number one searched for item for the first time since August 2010.
Meanwhile, Brisbane continues to be the most active city when it comes to online shoppers using Getprice. Mondays continues to be the most popular online shopping day on desktops/laptops while mobile shopping peaks on Sundays.