Residents of the Far East are nearly twice as likely as their western counterparts to shop via their mobile device, according to a survey by Rakuten.

The study revealed that 15 per cent of Indonesians and 13 per cent of Thais shop from their handsets, compared to just eight per cent of Americans and eight per cent of Brits.

Globally, the main motivation for shopping on a PC or laptop, rather than a mobile device, was perception of an inferior shopping experience, with just under half of all respondents in each country citing this as their main reason for shopping on their laptops.

In the US, the second largest concern was mobile security, with 22 per cent of respondents stating that it was their biggest mobile shopping concern, compared to 17 per cent of Thais and just 14 per cent of Japanese.

Tablets have been heralded as a game changer for mobile commerce, allowing a richer multimedia browsing experience more akin to a PC. Yet, despite soaring growth in tablet sales in the US with Forrester noting tablet PC sales in 2011 at 24.10 million, and forecast to reach 35.10 million in 2012, Thailand came out on top for m-commerce tablet adoption with 35 per cent using their tablets for shopping, compared to the US at 19 per cent and the closest European market, Italy, at 18 per cent.

“There’s still work to be done in order to tailor the mobile shopping experience for shoppers by providing new ways of searching and discovering products on the go, offering more mobile shopping incentives and ensuring mobile payments are secure and seamless,” said Bernard Luthi, CMO and COO of Rakuten’s Buy.com.

Rakuten’s research also reveals that the US remains behind France and Italy for social shopping, with just 19 per cent of those surveyed having ever shared a product on social media, compared to nearly half in Spain (50 per cent) and Italy (47 per cent).

GB