Behind the scenes

Mobile shopping is on the rise

5.8.2019

Translation: Eva Francis

Today, every fourth purchase on digitec and Galaxus is made via smartphone. Shop visits coming from smartphones have just overtaken visits coming from PCs. Women, the French-speaking Swiss and digital natives are pioneering this trend.

We carry it around in our pockets or handbags, take it with us to the toilet, have it next to as at work or in bed – and we use it to make online purchases: in the last few years, the share of mobile shopping has increased rapidly on digitec and Galaxus. Today, more than a quarter of all purchases are made from a smartphone. With purchases via tablet at 8%, mobile shopping now represents more than a third of all purchases (see chart). To put this into perspective: at the beginning of 2014, 99 percent of all online purchases in Switzerland were made via desktop or laptop.

Even more often than for shopping, smartphones are used to do research and find inspiration online – whether on the train, at home or during a coffee break at work. Today, almost every second visit on digitec and Galaxus originates from a smartphone. In December last year, the share of mobile visits exceeded the share of desktop visits for the first time.

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Mobile shopping more than a marginal phenomenon

For a large part of the population, shopping via mobile phone and tablet has become the main or an alternative shopping option. Since 2014, a third of all Digitec Galaxus customers have made at least one purchase from a mobile device. Mobile shopping is no longer a marginal phenomenon that’s unique to heavy users – it’s a common consumer behaviour.

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Mobile shopping popular in the French-speaking region

While visits and purchases from mobile devices have increased throughout Switzerland, the French-speaking region shows the largest increase with a mobile shopping share of 40%. With only 16% of all purchases made from a smartphone, mobile shopping is not as popular in the Italian-speaking part of Switzerland.

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Women and digital natives setting the trend

Mobile shopping on digitec and Galaxus is much more popular with women than with men. There is a particularly large difference when it comes to purchases: women use their phones to make purchases on digitec and Galaxus in 50 percent more cases than men do. When it comes to purchases via tablet, women lead by 15%. Men, on the other hand, make purchases from a PC about 25 percent more often than women do.

This difference isn’t as large when it comes to browsing behaviour: men use their smartphones almost as often (10% less) as women for browsing.

The reason for this difference might involve working situations: a large share of purchases on digitec and Galaxus are made during office working hours. As the employment rate is 18.5 percent higher among men in Switzerland than among women, men are also more likely to have access to a (work) computer. A further influencing factor becomes visible when purchases are grouped by product category: men buy more electronics than women – and the proportion of online sales in this product category is particularly high in Switzerland as well as on digitec and Galaxus. More on this later on.

People aged 55+ like tablets

The differences in user behaviour are also striking when comparing age groups: customers under 35 years of age now visit digitec and Galaxus more often from their mobile phones than from their computers. In the age group of 55+ years, however, every seventh visit originates from a tablet – and eight out of ten from a PC. The overall conclusion is: the older an online shopper, the more likely he or she is to use a computer and/or tablet to browse and make purchases.

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Printer cartridges are ordered via computer; toys via mobile phone

The differences seen in mobile shopping by age group and by sex are also reflected in user behaviour by product category: the largest share of visits and orders made from a PC can be seen in the three product categories «Digital», «Office» und «Media» – the categories «Fashion», «Toys» und «Parents + Baby» show the largest mobile share. «Fashion» is so far the only product category of Digitec Galaxus with a higher proportion of mobile visits than desktop visits.

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Online shopping on work computers

There are also large differences in online shopping behaviour in Switzerland depending on the time of day and the day of the week. While most visits and purchases are made from a computer during Swiss office working hours (8 a.m. to 5 p.m.), mobile shopping spikes during lunch hours. Mobile phones now play a major role in online shopping at breakfast, on the way to work and on weekends.

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What comes next?

One reason why mobile shopping may not have been a viable option in the past is that smartphones used to have rather small screens, which made it difficult to see everything at a glance. On top of this, the small smartphone keys were tricky to handle. In recent years, however, smartphone screens have become larger and larger. In addition, many online retailers now offer shops that are optimised for mobile use. These developments are likely to have given mobile shopping a further boost.

Digitec Galaxus expects mobile shopping via smartphone to continue to gain in importance in the coming years. The big question is: what comes next? Placing orders via language assistants, for instance, is already a reality. Augmented or virtual reality functionalities could also be the next big thing. The digitec and Galaxus apps have had an Augmented Reality feature since the end of 2017.

Images for free use

Mobile shopping on Galaxus:
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Digitec Galaxus headquarters in Zurich:
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Contact for media representatives

Digitec Galaxus AG
Corporate Communications
Pfingstweidstrasse 60, CH-8005 Zurich
Phone: +41 44 575 96 96
E-mail: media@digitecgalaxus.ch
Internet: digitec.ch galaxus.ch

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Alex Hämmerli

Senior Public Relations Manager

Alex.Haemmerli@digitecgalaxus.ch

At Digitec and Galaxus, I’m in charge of communication with journalists and bloggers. Good stories are my passion – I am always up to date.

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