The popularity of carrying out safe shopping online from smartphones is helping to increase the reach of the entire e-commerce sector, according to a report from App Annie.

As well as being a defining feature of the market in 2019, analysts expect that mobile will become even more influential over the course of 2020.

It is not just sales figures which are being bolstered thanks to mobile at the moment but also a range of other aspects of the average consumer’s shopping journey.

From researching products to comparing prices, tracking deliveries and tackling returns, portable devices are being used more widely for every step of this process.

Another intriguing piece of information uncovered in the report is that the more time people spend using shopping apps on smartphones, the more likely that sales both online and in-store for the retailers in question will benefit.

This shows that self-contained e-commerce apps are amongst the most powerful ways to engage with consumers and convince them to go through with purchases, whereas website visits can result in more casual, less committed behaviour from shoppers.

Researchers went on to look at how companies which have adopted a mobile-first stance to offering products and services are doing better than those which have chosen to overlook this area.

Last year a total of 204 billion apps were downloaded by consumers around the world, with users spending an average of almost four hours using their preferred apps.

There is still plenty of room for growth in the shopping app sector, as well as more broadly in the m-commerce market. No doubt 2020 will see smartphones and tablets increase their importance as a means of retailers winning over customers, so long as the experiences available are of a high enough quality.