Over a fifth of all UK online shopping sales now take place during people’s daily commutes. That’s the headline finding of a joint research venture conducted by the UK’s leading mobile payment innovator, Zapp, and the Centre for Economics and Business Research (Cebr).
‘Commuter Commerce’ now accounts for £9.3bn each year, as consumers take advantage of faster mobile browsing speeds, and the increasing availability of Wi-Fi on public transport, to shop between stops on their smartphones and tablets.
Zapp and Cebr found that each commuter spends £36/week on average, rising to £44/week for London commuters.
The most popular reason for shopping online while commuting is ‘just to pass the time’, followed by it being the most convenient time to shop. Many busy professionals are also taking advantage of ‘click and collect’ services, which allow them to pick up their goods later.
Other Key Findings:
- The peak morning rush (from 7am until 9am) sees the biggest spike in shopping, when 1.5 million commuters are estimated to be shopping. If you got on the 7:32 from Brighton to London this morning, it is likely that almost a third of your train would have been using their mobile device to shop
- Clothing tops the shopping lists of most commuters: almost three quarters of Brits (71%) commuting via public transport report that they purchase clothing online during their commute on an average week
- Entertainment and media are the next two most popular items, with 68% paying for digital downloads during their commute on an average week, and 65% spending on other entertainment media (such as DVDs, CDs, books etc.)
- Groceries (62%) and takeaways (60%) also featured highly
The report concludes that quicker and safer ways to pay could persuade 730,000 people to shop online during their commute for their first time, helping boost overall spending by £1.5 billion annually and tipping the national total over £10 billion.
Commenting on the research findings, Zapp CEO Peter Keenan, said, “From doing the weekly shop to buying tickets for a gig, commuters are becoming increasingly comfortable with shopping on their mobile devices wherever they are. But fishing out your credit or debit card and then tapping in a long sequence of numbers does not represent the ideal checkout experience on a packed train. If commuter commerce is to continue to flourish we need faster, safer mobile payment methods.”
Rob Harbron, Managing Economist at Cebr commented, “People in Britain spend more online per head than any other nation, and it seems our love affair with online shopping now also extends to the morning rush hour. The data shows that commuter commerce is booming in the UK as savvy commuters use their time efficiently to make the purchases they just don’t have time for normally. We estimate that making the mobile checkout experience faster and safer could boost spending by £30m each week.”
