Shopping on mobile phones by British consumers will increase by 53 percent in 2012 to £4.53 billion making them the leaders in Europe for the third year running according to a survey by the Centre for Retail Research on behalf of price comparison website Kelkoo.  The UK will finish ahead of Germany (£2.7 billion) and France (£1.9 billion), according to the research firm.  In 2011 British shoppers also led the way with £2.97 billion of mobile shopping with the same two countries (Germany and France) next in line with £1.6 billion and £1.08 billion respectively. Interestingly in fourth spot in 2011 was Sweden with £430 million even though a number of European countries with larger populations might have been expected to finish more strongly. The research predicts that Sweden will lose fourth spot in 2012 to Belgium/Netherlands/Luxembourg (the research firm includes the three countries as a single entity).

The survey also analyses mobile shopping as a percentage of total online sales in each European country. Even though the UK led the way again in 2011 with 5.9 percent, it was only narrowly ahead of Sweden (5.8 percent) and Spain (5.4 percent) with Germany and France finishing less strongly under this measure than they had for their total mobile shopping figures.