One in seven Europeans buy on smartphones

One in seven European smartphone users have bought something on their device in the last month, new data from comScore reveals.

The comScore MobiLens service – released this week to give an overview of mobile phone usage across the five leading European markets – showed that the number of Europeans engaging in m-commerce has increased by 37% year on year from 16.6 million users in August 2012 to 22.8 million in Augist 2013.

Overall, the mobile retail audience grew by 43% in that period, with 20% of smartphone users accessing online retail sites and apps on their device.

Spain was the fastest growing market with a growth rate of 66.5% with almost 3.3 million smartphone users accessing retail sites on their mobile, followed by Italy (61.3%), Germany (45.2%), France (35.9%) and then the UK (30%).

The research also found that 36.6 million European smartphone users took a picture of a product while in store, with just over 14% of these sending a photo of a product to a friend/family member, and 14% calling somebody about a product.

Other popular activities included scanning a product barcode (11%) and comparing product prices (8%).

The top five goods or services purchased were clothing or accessories, consumer electronics/household appliances, books (excluding e-books), tickets and personal care/hygiene products.