While the rise of smartphones and tablets has given consumers a new way to carry out safe shopping online, the majority still prefer to conduct their e-commerce transactions via a desktop or laptop computer.

This is according to the findings of a survey conducted by Bronto Software, in which it was discovered that three quarters of consumers would rather use a standard PC for online shopping than a portable device.

Two thousand people participated in the study, with just 37 per cent of smartphone owners saying that they currently use their handset to make e-commerce purchases.

Mobiles are influencing retail habits, with 54 per cent admitting that they now make use of their smartphone to carry out product research more regularly than they did 12 months earlier.

Just over a fifth of respondents said that the rise of shopping online had convinced them to avoid visiting bricks and mortar outlets as frequently as they did in the past.

Report spokesperson, Georges Berzgal, said that in spite of the widespread adoption of smart devices, many people are still committed to using a desktop or laptop PC when the time comes to make a purchase.

He revealed that smartphones are now seen as great tools for researching products while out and about, but are less amenable to those who are ready to commit to a sale.

This ties into the idea that consumers are increasingly comfortable with the idea of beginning their shopping journey on one device and ending it on another. And this multiplatform approach is one which retailers are rushing to embrace.

So while most browsing and searching may now be done from smartphones, there is still a place in the market for traditional computers in spite of the tech changes that have occurred.