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Smartphones used for Christmas shopping, study finds

Recent research has confirmed that a lot of Christmas shopping was conducted on smartphones and tablets.

The British Retail Consortium (BRC) and Google Online Retail Monitor for the fourth quarter of 2011 revealed that total retail search volumes grew by 24 per cent in comparison to the same three months in 2010.

However, searches conducted on mobiles and tablets were up in volume by 169 per cent year-on-year, suggesting that people are at least researching what presents to buy while on the move and that they may be actually making purchases as well.

Stephen Robertson, director-general at the BRC, commented: "For a fourth successive quarter, the number of retail searches from smartphones and tablets has nearly trebled compared with the previous year.

"During December, one in five retail searches came from a mobile device and on Christmas Day this increased to more than one in four."

He added that it was clear that cash-strapped consumers are making use of technology to hunt down the best bargains and offers while on the move.

Pre-Christmas searches were shown to have peaked on 4 December for mobile and tablet devices and a week earlier on 30 November for overall online retail searches.