Online shoppers prefer mobile, especially for these products…

Close to half of all online shoppers would rather use their mobile phones, and more than three-quarters make mobile purchases in one key category.

The recurring Shopping Pulse from global retail bank, payments and shopping service Klarna reveals that 48% of surveyed U.S. consumers prefer shopping on mobile phones, compared to computers (41%) and tablets (11%). The highest share of mobile purchases are within health & beauty (78%), clothing & shoes (75%), children products (68%) and jewelry & accessories (60%).

Looking at general online shopping trends, the survey finds that 26-to-35-year olds are the most active online shoppers. Interestingly, this age group is closely followed by 36-to-45-year olds, with “digital native” 18-to-25-year-olds trailing.

Dividing age cohorts differently, Klarna data indicates that among 18-to-35-year-old respondents, the first online shopping priority is jewelry & accessories, followed by health & beauty and then clothing & shoes. Among 36-to-55-year-old respondents, leisure, sport & hobby is the top online shopping priority, followed by home & garden and clothing & shoes. For respondents 56 and up, the top three online shopping priorities are entertainment, home & garden, and leisure, sport & hobby.

Examining online shopping priorities by gender, the survey finds the most-shopped online category by both men and women is clothing & shoes, followed by groceries. But that doesn’t mean that their preferences are completely the same – women still shop more online than men for clothing & shoes, as well as on beauty products, and jewelry & accessories. Men shop more for electronics, entertainment, leisure sports & hobby products, and automotive products.

Other notable statistics include:

• 61% of respondents have high interest in shopping.
• 41% have shopped online and/or physical stores at least once a week in the past month.
• If they had to either shop in physical stores only or online only, 56% of respondents would prefer physical stores only and 44% would shop online only.

A nationally representative sample of 1,003 U.S. shoppers selected by research agency Nepa participated in the Klarna Shopping Pulse during May 2021.