European consumers are increasingly willing to blend elements of safe shopping online with visits to real-world stores as they make use of mobile devices to augment the bricks-and-mortar experience.

This is according to a study from Blis, in which analysts found that shopping via e-commerce sites is preferred by 47 per cent of people across the continent. This means that physical stores still have the upper hand at the moment, but they are coming perilously close to being eclipsed by their digital counterparts.

Almost two-thirds of respondents said that they took advantage of smartphone tech in order to check prices and call up product information when out and about on the high street, which feeds into well-established trends governing the way that portable gadgets are shaping shopping habits.

This process of researching on a mobile device is more popular amongst the under-35s, with 80 per cent of consumers in this age group confirming themselves as dedicated smartphone shopping acolytes.

The report also revealed the effectiveness of mobile ads as a means of convincing consumers to head to physical stores to make purchases while they are on the move. This paints an interesting multichannel picture of how marketing functions in the smartphone age, encouraging both online and in-store purchases.

The study asked respondents to identify their particular shopping ‘type’, with the majority seeing themselves as savvy because they harness price comparison tools to make sure they are getting the best deal whenever they carry out a transaction.

Just over a third said that low prices were the most important aspect of any purchase, allowing the bargain-seeking benefits of the web to really come into their own.

At the moment it seems like physical and digital retail are finding a balance between one another, with mobile phones being the lynchpin of this relationship.