The people of Northern Ireland wear more high heels than anyone else in the UK, London boys like black brogues, the Scots are partial to a blue pair of Adidas, while the Welsh go for a white Converse – but they are all united by a shared love of shopping for shoes online.
So suggests the latest census of online shoe-buying data from Office , which finds that browsing for shoes on different devices is increasingly becoming more uniform.
Office’s stats show that the average number of page views per session for mobile is 6.2, but it is 8.1 and 9.0 respectively for tablet and PC – showing that while mobile is still a more rapid experience, it is starting to pull towards the amount of time spent browsing on the other more leisurely device types.
As well as there being regional differences in shoe styles, there are distinct regional differences too in how people shop.
People in Croydon seem to browse on tablets the most before deciding on a purchase as they had the highest number of page views per session (10.0) when compared to the average (8.1), while on mobile, people in Southampton spent the most time browsing with 6.8 pages viewed per session (6.2 average).
When it comes to desktop shopping, there are three top towns/cities that like to browse the most before committing to a purchase: Croydon – 10.3 pv/s; Reading – 10.1 pv/s and Aberdeen – 10.1 pv/s, compared to an average of 9.0 across the land.
So what do these figures tell us other than Londoners have nicer shoes? The interesting thing to come out of the census, as said, is that sessions on all devices are now starting to include very many page views. At 6.8 mobile may seem weak, but its only two and a bit behind desktop.
This shows that thanks to better, faster devices and better networks, shoppers are increasingly not distinguishing between devices when they come to browse. Yes, they may well be preferring desktop and tablet over mobile, but the gap is closing.
