M-commerce in the UK passed an important milestone during Q2 with 52 per cent of traffic to retail websites coming via smartphones and tablet devices, according to the latest IMRG Capgemini quarterly benchmarking report. It’s the first time mobile devices have overtaken the desktop in terms of ‘e-tail’ traffic.

The report also finds that 36 per cent of UK online sales were completed on a smartphone or tablet device – a figure that rises to 40 per cent for clothing and apparel merchants.

Of sales completed on a mobile device, smartphones accounted for around 18 per cent, while tablets made up 82 per cent (based on the data sample from the IMRG Capgemini m-Retail Sales Index).

“With over half of all e-retail traffic now coming via smartphones and tablet devices, the latest quarterly benchmarking results reveal a huge landmark in the growth of mobile commerce,” said Tina Spooner, CIP at IMRG. “Considering that as recently as 2010 mobile visits to e-retail sites accounted for less than 3 per cent of traffic, this latest milestone represents staggering growth of 2,000 per cent over the past 4 years. These results clearly demonstrate that retailers’ investment in mobile optimisation is encouraging consumers to adopt mobile devices as a shopping platform.”

The report also revealed that the total estimated online spend during Q2 (May to July) was £24.2 billion, with £8.7 billion spent via smartphones and tablet devices.