A study published by Feefo this week has revealed the extent to which smartphone use by consumers carrying out safe shopping online has continued to reshape the e-commerce landscape, leading to a significant drop in the proportion of people who make purchases from desktop and laptop computers.

Over the past year there has been a 47 per cent fall in traditional PC-based online shopping alongside a significant 141 per cent uptick in smartphone-centric retail activities.

53 per cent of people questioned in the study said that their mobile was now their first port of call when searching for and buying products online, while just 31 per cent said that full-sized PCs were their go-to option.

The report also found that social media is increasingly influential in this marketplace, with 42 per cent of respondents revealing that they had made a purchase after clicking through from an ad showcased on a social platform.

Study spokesperson Matt West said that the UK’s e-commerce market is still undergoing significant changes in the way that consumers behave at the moment, pointing out that there is even a divide between the genders based on which type of online shopping platform is the most appealing.

Women tend to prefer smartphones as an online shopping option, with almost two-thirds of female respondents putting this as their device of choice for browsing and buying. Meanwhile, only 41 per cent of males said that they were m-commerce converts, giving laptops and desktops a small lead in this segment of the population.

This report further demonstrates how important it is for retailers to cater to customers across all platforms, with mobile-optimised sites especially vital at a time when the majority of visits come from portable handsets and desktop sites are fading into irrelevance.