Mobile shopping on the rise

New Zealanders are choosing to do more and more of their shopping on the go according to a Nielsen's Online Retail Report. There has been a 127 per cent increase in smartphone shopping across the year and tablet shoppers have also increased with a 73 per cent rise.

The Report looked at continuous data, evaluating the online shopping habits of 3000 people over the age of 18 every three months. The trended data has been collected since 2001. Nielsen says 1.9 million New Zealanders are now doing their shopping online spending $2.5 billion on local sites in the past year.

As the number of smartphone and tablet users increase there is a heavy demand for efficient and phone apps. Trade Me's successful online app has placed them at the top of the list of highest performing commerce sites. Nielson's report has found that 56 per cent of the population has accessed the site. These statistics more than double the figures of the second highest commerce site, The Warehouse, who reached 22 per cent of the population.

Nielsen research director, Tony Boyte, suggested that people are feeling more comfortable with the idea of shopping online and companies are making their online apps accessible and easier to use.

Top commerce site Trade Me says the key to its online consumer success is to make the customer's online shopping experience fun and entertaining. The company has kept the layout of its mobile app as close to its online website as possible, making it easy for its users to navigate.

The Warehouse says it is making the most of the boom in online traffic by offering new ways of shopping in their stores. The company has Wi-Fi available across their 91 stores and has introduced barcode scanning. The tool allows customers to scan products in store and also allows them to add products to an online wish list shopping basket so that purchases can be made at any time.

New Zealanders have spent $3.8 billion online on purchases both here and overseas in the past year.

Top Commerce Sites visited by New Zealanders

Brand: Monthly Visitors
Trade Me: 1875
The Warehouse: 745
GrabOne: 627
Amazon: 587
Air New Zealand: 477
eBay: 449
Countdown: 413
Mighty Ape: 377
Treat Me: 364
1-day: 357