A recent report from Ve Global has found that more people in the UK are set to make purchases via safe shopping online from their smartphones this Christmas, largely as a result of better optimisation from retailers.

Analysts recorded a 10 per cent dip in bounce rates from mobile sites and services, meaning fewer consumers were leaving shortly after arriving on m-commerce platforms. This suggests that they are having a more enjoyable, intuitive time when shopping from their smartphones and tablets than in the past.

The study suggests that there could be a 44 per cent increase in sales derived from portable devices in the weeks leading up to the 25th of December this year compared with the same period in 2017.

A total of 53 per cent of all web browsing assessed in the report was found to originate from smartphones alone, easily allowing these handsets to outpace PCs and laptops as well as tablets in terms of market share.

For years a lot of criticism was levelled at retailers for failing to cater to a mobile audience, although now that ownership and usage has reached saturation point it is unthinkable for a firm not to optimise sites and offer apps for portable platforms.

As the Black Friday weekend gets underway, millions of Brits will be glued to their devices in order to get the best deals, taking advantage of downtime at home or during the commute to and from work to snap up impressive offers. 

Study spokesperson David Marrinan-Hayes argued that these figures show how traditional browsing and shopping platforms are becoming increasingly irrelevant in the face of ever-growing mobile use. He said that retailers were finally getting wise to these trends and were posed to perform well in the next few weeks.