By Aimee Chanthadavong
In eBay’s latest study, it has revealed that Australians are embracing the mobile commerce with a growing number of people now shopping on eBay through their phones.
The research, which was conducted by Pure Profile, found that the number of items purchased through mobile devices has doubled in seven months. In fact, in 2010 so far, Australian consumers bought more than one million items on eBay via mobile devices.
Nearly 25 per cent of Australians now use their mobile phone to shop online, with a third doing it more than once a week, Jenny Thomas, eBay Australia & New Zealand spokesperson, told Retailbiz.
“We’ve seen massive a growth in mobile shopping particularly since eBay developed its own iPhone app in 2008. For the company globally, mobile shopping is one of our fastest growing sectors,” she said.
For this growing band of mobile shoppers the key motivation was convenience (44 per cent) of being able to shop at home in the evening (32 per cent), commuting to and from work (19 per cent) and at work where no one can see (12 per cent).
Thomas also said: “In our study, we found that 5 per cent of people are shopping while on the toilet.”
Despite a similar number of items are bought on eBay through mobile devices, the study found that men spent double that of female shoppers.
“Traditionally, women have been more price conscious and are always after a bargain but as we all know men typically don’t like hanging out at shopping centres and therefore are inevitably more inclined to spend a bit more than go to a shopping centre,” Thomas said.
According to Thomas, the results are reflective of the increasing availability of smart phone technology.
“Consumers are getting savvier about technology and Australians are shopping more and more online as it’s a channel that has grown massively as an alternate to the ‘brick and mortar’ retailer,” she said.
“Overall, consumer behaviour has shifted shopping from shopping centres to online and on mobile phones. And as just as more smartphones get released it is inevitable for retailers to take advantage of that.”