Although the England team may be buoying the spirits of a nation with their nail-biting antics in Russia at the moment, it seems that some Brits are less engaged with the World Cup than might be assumed.

A report from Clicktale has revealed that 17 per cent of people who have watched games during the tournament over the past few weeks have done so without actually being interested in the sport itself.

Meanwhile a third admitted to picking up their smartphones and indulging in a spot of safe shopping online during periods of boredom that set in when the action on the pitch descends into a lull.

Study spokesperson, Liraz Margalit, said that people indulge in retail due a range of emotions, with boredom being one of the key motivators in this instance.

The rise of powerful mobile devices has given consumers even quicker access to safe shopping online, whether they are watching the World Cup from the sofa at home or while out at the pub.

Margalit claimed that even the matches in which England have played so far have been viewed by people who become disinterested at some point in the proceedings, leading to stints of e-commerce browsing and purchasing.

The upshot of this is that the number of online sales channelled through portable devices will be higher than ever over the course of the World Cup, which proves that retailers should optimise their sites as much as possible to capture this market segment.

Page load speeds can hamper the mobile shopping experience, but it is also a lack of intuitiveness to the interfaces that are available to consumers that cause complications. Experts argue that there is still a long way to go before mobile shopping can match the desktop experience.