Only a few years ago, a walk down any high street or a trip to any mall would see you walking past several bricks and mortar mobile phone stores, all enjoying the boom in mobile phone use. In 2012, 51% of adults in the UK owned a smartphone and a tablet, now, in 2017, 65% do and it is expected to rise significantly year-on-year. Whilst this initially saw a boom in high street sales of mobile phones , as smartphone screen have become better and larger, it also meant that more and more consumers are now searching for the best smartphone deals on their mobile phones and purchasing them this way too.
This has resulted in the need to go to a physical mobile phone shop as almost redundant, as consumers find it much more convenient to shop online and they’ll almost certainly get better deals by shopping around online too. Bricks and mortar phone stores are struggling more and more against their Ecommerce counterparts which has recently seen the Phone Shop. Sainsbury’s in-store mobile phone retailer close as well as the closure of Phones 4U back in 2014. Phones 4U hit difficulties when they were unable to keep their contracts with Vodafone and EE as well as failing to compete with the online only retailers.
Whilst these bricks and mortar mobile phone shops struggled, their online counterparts have been going from strength to strength. Mobile Phones Direct for example, the independent online phones retailer has been experiencing year-on-year growth, the business’s annual page views going from 38 million in 2015 to 2016 which represents an increase of 9%.
Larger Phone Screens = An Increase In Ecommerce Activity
Recent data suggests that consumers who opt for larger smartphones with a greater screen area are significantly more likely to use Ecommerce services. On the face of it, this makes sense, with Ecommerce sites now playing a greater deal of attention to UX as well as Google calling for sites to become mobile friendly and it is well thought that a mobile optimised website has benefits in terms of rankings and conversions.
Not Just Mobile Phone Shops
It’s not just mobile phone shops that are disappearing from high streets across the UK. Other industries are being hit hard by the rise in ecommerce too, one of the main ones being travel agents. Once upon a time it was not uncommon to have a handful of travel agents on most high streets in the UK but now the country is seeing unprecedented closure, with over 45% of high street travel stores closing since 2014.
The Future
Whilst many people may yearn for good old days of bustling high streets it’s clear that most consumers consider their right to use Ecommerce to get better deals at their fingertips as much more important. It is clear that we will see e commerce not just UK high streets but how people shot across the globe.
