Almost half of smartphone users in Asia-Pacific now buy clothes, apps and other items on the small screen, according to a survey of 14 markets released by MasterCard today.
The results reflect the growing popularity of e-commerce sites in a region with fast-increasing income levels and technology savviness.
Even taking into account diverse places such as Singapore, Japan, India and China, the study found that 45.6 per cent of smartphone users in the region have made purchases on the go, mainly because of convenience.
They survey is based on interviews between October and December 2014, with a minimum of 500 people aged 18-64, in each of the 14 markets surveyed.
In particular, China is where users are most likely to shop on a smartphone. There, 70.1 per cent of smartphone users buy on their portable devices. This is followed by India at 62.9 per cent and Taiwan at 62.6 per cent.
Besides convenience, users also cited the ability to shop on the go and apps that make shopping online easier as reasons why they use the smartphone to buy things.
What do people buy online? The most popular purchases are clothing and accessories (27.9 per cent), followed by apps (21.2 per cent) and daily deal coupons (19.2 per cent).
More than one-third of Chinese (37.4 per cent) and Korean (36 per cent) consumers shop for clothing and accessories on their smartphone. Meanwhile, apps top the list of items Thai (33.8 per cent) and Vietnamese (31.8 per cent) shoppers bought using smartphones.
Besides shopping online, Asia-Pacific consumers are also increasingly savvy with new mobile technologies that let them transact on the go.
In the MasterCard survey, 27.9 per cent of respondents said they use mobile banking apps.
In China, group buying apps are popular as well, with 40.3 per cent of users firing them up on the go, while digital wallets are also gaining traction with 28.5 per cent of users starting to use them to pay for items.
