Half of the purchases UK consumers made online came from mobile devices in the final three months of 2015, according to the latest IMRG figures.

This figure shows that m-commerce activities finally tipped into the majority during the fourth quarter of the year; a significant rise from the 45 per cent penetration rate for mobile purchases registered in Q3, The Drum reports.

Interestingly, this study shows that tablets are still the most popular mobile platform to use when actually committing to a purchase, accounting for 33 per cent of the entire online market. This puts smartphone use for transactions at 18 per cent, while desktop and laptop computers hold onto a 49 per cent stake.

The report spokesperson, Tina Spooner, said that the acceleration of smartphone use in the past 12 months has shown that people are more comfortable with the idea of being able to make a purchase from this type of portable device than ever before. She also pointed out that there was almost a doubling of smartphone-originated purchases in January of 2016 alone, indicating that they could soon dominate e-commerce as a whole.

Analysts also believe that retailers should be congratulated for rising to the challenges presented by increased mobile use. It is thought that people are not only happy to use smartphones to make purchases because they are confident in the security offered, but also because the experience of accessing shopping sites on portable devices has improved significantly in the past 12 months.

This has led to a dramatic rise in conversion rates on mobile sites, with optimised pages being easier to use on touchscreen handsets. And, as tablet sales continue to slide, smartphones look set to become even more prominent as the year progresses.