Of every £10 spent online in the UK over Christmas, £4.10 was spent over a mobile device, new analysis suggests.
Overall, Britons spent £24.5bn online in November and December, according to Adobe’s latest Digital Index – 11% more than at the same time last year. On Black Friday alone, £908m changed hands although, says Adobe, the individual day’s share of revenue fell by 8% from 2015. Meanwhile, last minute shoppers spent 50% more on the last Monday before Christmas.
The Adobe data suggests that just under two-thirds (60%) of online visits to UK retailers during the holiday season were made on a mobile device. This’s far ahead of the third (36%) of traffic that visited UK retailers in the second quarter of 2015, and £1.70 of every £10 spent online.
But the amount spent in the 2016 Christmas period stayed stayed flat on the 2015 festive period, when £4.10 of every £10 spent online in the UK was via a mobile device.
John Watton, EMEA marketing director, Adobe, said: “2016 saw an unprecedented surge in online Holiday shopping, and mobile shopping in particular. Consumers’ desire to purchase items on mobile devices is clearly there. In an increasingly competitive retail market, it’s critical that retailers continue to personalise the shopping experience – across all devices and touchpoints – so that users are compelled to purchase more on their smartphones throughout the whole year.”
Over Christmas 2016, the UK’s mobile spending was substantially higher than the rest of the world’s: £3.10 in every £10, and 50% of online visits to retailers came via a mobile in the US; the Nordics recorded £3 in £10 and a 49% share of traffic; Germany saw mobile revenue drop to £2.70 and traffic to 44%; and just £2.60 was spent in France, with mobile again accounting for 44% of online visits.
Overall, it was a strong holiday season for the UK, with £24.48BN spent online during the period, an 11% increase on 2015. Comparatively, France saw a revenue increase of 14%, with $16BN spent online; Germany witnessed a 7% increase to $24.9BN; and the Nordics saw a 6% increase to $9.5BN. The US spent a staggering $91.7BN online in 2016, which was an 11% uptick compared to 2015.
The UK’s strong growth was partly driven by a surge in last minute Christmas shopping, with the amount spent on the last Monday before Christmas (19th December), increasing by half (50%) in 2016.
However, in comparison to 2015, Black Friday’s share of revenue fell by just under a tenth (8%) in the UK. This is likely due to retailers discounting their items for longer periods of time – Cyber Monday, for instance, saw revenue growth of 10%. Despite this, Black Friday still remains the most popular day for online shopping, with Britons spending £908MN on this day alone. Shoppers also kept the Boxing Day sales tradition alive, with just over a tenth (11%) more spent on 26th December.
