42% of mobile shoppers buy 'on impulse', finds ING study
More than 139.5 million Europeans now shop via mobile phone on a regular basis, with 42 per cent saying that they buy 'on impulse' compared to 25 per cent of non-mobile shoppers.
The study from ING looked at the shopping, lifestyle and saving habits of mobile bankers. It involved over 12,403 people using internet-based polling across Europe, with 990 respondents coming from the UK specifically.
Looking at what they are spending on, 23 per cent of items purchased on mobile were clothes, followed by electronics (21 per cent), games (12 per cent), holidays (11 per cent), music (11 per cent) and groceries (11 per cent).
Examining the rise of alternative payment methods, ING found that nearly half (49 per cent) of Europeans use physical cash less often than they did 12 months ago and 40 per cent claim they rarely use it.
A further 45 per cent of consumers predicted that they will use less cash in the next 12 months.
In the UK, 31 per cent of Britons now bank via a smartphone.
"Mobile banking is becoming more common across Europe and more people are prepared to pay for things using cashless methods,” said ING senior economist Ian Bright.
"In terms of long-term economic trends, the growth of smartphone use and acceptance of technology is likely to hasten the growth of cashless payments."
However, Bitcoin is one payment method in which Europe remains sceptical. In the UK, 46 per cent of people said they don’t believe Bitcoin to be the future of spending online, however Turkey was the most receptive, with 36 per cent agreeing that it could be the future.
The survey also compared consumer expectations of banks to be on social media from data it gathered last year.
Fewer people now expect bank to make it possible to make payments across social media; 25 per cent in 2014 compared to 33 per cent in 2013.