The British Retail Consortium has said that increased numbers of shoppers are searching for retail brands via their smartphones, with search volumes on said devices 26% higher in the second quarter of 2017, compared to the same period last year.
For all devices across the UK, search volumes maintained year on year growth of 7% in the second quarter of 2017, the BRC said.
“The growth of UK retail searches online in the second quarter of 2017 remains unchanged on the previous year, although smartphones are increasingly becoming the dominant device for online browsing and therefore the main contributor to this growth," said Helen Dickinson, chief executive of the British Retail Consortium:
"The increase in mobile search volumes over this period is consistent with the upward trend in online non-food sales growth."
Category Growth
The BRC also noted that beauty and apparel are the most popular categories for online searches, particularly from overseas, with Estonia posting the highest search volume growth year-on-year.
"The growth in mobile browsing from the EU demonstrates a stable appetite for UK brands from overseas consumers," said Dickinson. "Satisfying this interest from abroad through retailers’ digital offer, is crucial to go some way to offsetting the more discretionary spending habits of hard-pressed UK consumers.”
© 2017 European Supermarket Magazine – your source for the latest retail news. Article by Stephen Wynne-Jones. Click subscribe to sign up to ESM: The European Supermarket Magazine.
