Mobile & Tablet Retailing in the UK 2017
Summary
Mobile spend is set to dramatically rise, forecast to increase by 112.0% in the next five years. Key sectors including clothing & footwear and food & grocery will aid market acceleration, with the former already well-established and accounting for 40.5% of all mobile revenue in 2017. Food & grocery spend will rise as inflationary prices power the sector on the whole and online growth ramps up as consumers choose to take advantage of additional features such as price comparison tools.
Tablet channel will experience growth but at a slower pace, and by 2022 the only sector with higher revenue coming from this channel, will be electricals. Retailers operating in this sector must ensure tablet versions of websites and apps are improved considering the differing shopping behaviour for electrical items. Expected to experience high growth, homewares retailers can succeed in mobile websites and apps by ensuring desktop functionality is offered in a relevant way. High quality product images and clear, informative product descriptions will enable homewares players to take share of the mobile market.
Clothing & footwear sector is the biggest part of the mobile market, accounting for 40.5% of spends in 2017, forecast to rise to 42.0% in 2022. This is reflective of the total online market (clothing & footwear accounts for 25.6% of spend, forecast to rise to 29.5% by 2022) where clothing retailers have seen high growth in recent years as consumers shift more of their spend from physical stores to digital channels. Delivery and returns improvements, clearer navigation, higher quality and larger images, along with faster, simplified checkouts have all contributed to rising mobile sales paired with the consumer desire to use a smartphone.
Health & beauty has the highest penetration of mobile shoppers at 33.3% of online purchasers. Boots is aiming to attract consumers purchasing on mobile by offering numerous extra features on its app to drive engagement and increase shopper loyalty. Although Amazon has the highest market share, Boots and Superdrug are well placed to compete with easy to use mobile sites and fast and free click & collect options.
With mobile shoppers more likely to use social media channels and the same group having a higher propensity to make impulse purchases, it is no surprise that clothing & footwear sales have rocketed with retailers frequently running paid display ads across social media and bloggers promoting items encouraging shoppers to make a quick and easy purchase.
Amazon dominates the top spot in all but one of the non-food categories, demonstrating the e-tail giant’s power in the online market. With the retailer focusing on its clothing offer, it threatens to take an even bigger piece of the pie away from other online pureplays like ASOS and boohoo.com along with multichannel players who must invest to keep up. Tesco outperforms its rivals in the food & grocery field, however with 50.4% of consumers switching grocers when they began shopping via apps, there is opportunity to steal share from the leader.
The report “Mobile & Tablet Retailing in the UK 2017” offers comprehensive insight and analysis of the UK mobile and tablet markets, the main trends and hot issues, best in class retailers, and consumer shopping behaviour. It also provides forecasts to 2022 across key retail sectors.
The report provides in-depth analysis of the following –
– The hot issues
– What people buy
– Where people shop
– How people shop
Companies mentioned in this report: boohoo.com, ASOS, H&M, Amazon, Mothercare, Harvey Nichols, Next, Made.com, Shop Direct, John Lewis, Sainsbury’s, Argos, Tesco, Waitrose, Ocado, Morrisons, Milk and more, Dixons Carphone, iTunes, WH Smith, Waterstones, The Works, Book Depository, Asda, New Look, Marks & Spencer, Missguided, Very.co.uk, Sports Direct, Debenhams, B&Q, Argos, IKEA, Screwfix, Homebase/Bunnings, Wilko, Wickes, Boots, AO.com, Apple, Currys PC World, Game, Hotel Chocolat, Holland & Barrett, Moonpig, Aldi, Thorntons, Poundshop.com, House of Fraser, The Range, Dunelm, DFS, Superdrug, Lush, The Body Shop, Sky, HMV, CeX, PlayStation Network, Steam, Xbox Live, Google Play.
Scope
– Food & grocery will see the highest growth on mobile over the next five years, with greater usage, improved websites and apps as well as consumer confidence driving purchases through this channel.
– Clothing & footwear, the biggest part of the mobile market, will continue to be the largest driver of mobile spend to 2022. Pureplays such as boohoo.com and ASOS, which target the younger consumer who is more willing to purchase on a mobile device, will boost spend on mobile.
– There is an opportunity for home sectors, where retailers have been slower to react to mobile developments, to capitalise on the growth coming from mobile by targeting shoppers who have abandoned purchases or advertising must-have products via social media channels.
Reasons to buy
– Utilise our five year forecasts to 2022 for the mobile and tablet markets, and sector penetration to understand the main areas of growth.
– Identify the key players in the mobile and tablet markets using our in-depth analysis of how and why certain sectors are performing well in the market to gain strategic insight into this.
– Understand the key drivers and inhibitors affecting the market.
– Recognise which consumers are shopping via mobile and tablet and utilise analysis of shoppers’ motivations and browsing/purchasing behaviour to enable a better understanding of the mobile and tablet markets moving forward.
