Housewares Business-to-business magazine for housewares retailers and their suppliers
New statistics from the British Retail Consortium and Google reveal a huge rise in retail searches performed on tablet devices in the second quarter.
Searches on tablets outpaced those on any other device, soaring 132% compared with a growth of 66% for smartphones. And searches by UK consumers for overseas retailers lifted 51% in the same period.
Growth in search volumes on both tablets and smartphones were at their highest on the weekend before the Wimbledon Championships.
BRC director general Helen Dickinson said: “These results show the changes that the internet is bringing to the international retail market. The considerable increase this month in the number of UK consumers searching overseas retailers shows barriers are increasingly being broken down. UK retailers are already responding well to these changes, and will be keen to continue seeing equivalent increases in overseas customers searching them out.”
Google retail director Peter Fitzgerald added: “The second quarter saw strong sustained growth in retail queries. Traditionally this is a strong quarter for DIY & gardening retailers, a trend we saw repeated this year, fuelled by some fair weather and three bank holidays. UK interest in overseas brands however, has really peaked this quarter driven in particular by interest in US brands.
“The growing multi-screening phenomenon across the UK – where people use their connected devices whilst watching TV – is also reflected in the growth in queries coming from tablets and smartphones.”
