Small businesses not capitalising on mobile shopping

New research from PayPal reveals that UK small businesses could be losing billions in sales by failing to act on the popularity of smartphones, as 42 percent of UK shoppers buy on mobile at least once a week.

PayPal’s small business mobile commerce research, which is now in its third year, adds that the number of UK shoppers buying on mobile rises to 65 percent for consumers age 25 – 34, and that the consumers are now willing to spend more than 100 pounds in an average mobile transaction, up from 80 pounds in 2017.

In addition, 22 percent of consumers said they prefer shopping on their mobile to the high street, a figure that has more than doubled since 2016.

The PayPal research shows that UK small businesses are continuing to lose sales by not offering websites that adapt for easy use on smartphones, and this could be costing them a slice of the 25 billion pounds in mobile spending in 2019, according to Uswitch research.

Commenting on the findings, Nicola Longfield, director of small business at PayPal UK, said in a statement: “With people increasingly shopping on their mobile phones, small businesses need to wake up to the fact that there is still a large gap between what customers want, and what they are receiving. If websites remain difficult to use, small businesses will simply miss out on sales.

“There are relatively easy fixes that business owners can make to get more mobile sales. For instance, offering mobile-friendly payment options like PayPal, so that customers don’t have to enter lengthy card details, and formatting websites for scrolling without needing to zoom in can make a huge difference.”