10 Mobile Usage Stats You Need to Know in 2023 [Infographic] (2024)

Metmobile commerce salesAn estimated $3.56 trillion in 2021, e-commerce store owners can no longer afford to ignore the importance of a mobile-optimized online store to attract customers and grow their business.

It starts with understanding how consumers use their mobile devices today. So before you make any changes to your store, you'll want to read on for the latest and most relevant facts and figures to guide your strategy.

In this article, we provide you with key mobile statistics on key aspects of mobile usage, such as the number of people who own smartphones, digital ad spend on mobile devices and more.

For even more ideas on using mobile commerce, check out ourmobile trading guideToday.

When you're ready, we'll get started right away!

Start selling online now with Shopify

Start your free trial

1. How many people own smartphones?

When talking about mobile usage statistics, there is one thing we absolutely cannot ignore: the dominance of smartphones.

→ Click here to start your online business with Shopify

There are currently6,8 mlnsmartphone users worldwide (Statista, 2022). Considering the world population is on8 miathis means a smartphone penetration of more than 80 percent.

The number of smartphone users is also increasing rapidly over time, as evidenced by the fact that there were 3.7 billion smartphone users in 2016. In other words: the number of smartphone users has increased by as much as 86.5 percent in just seven years.

Smartphone use is expected to continue to rise in the coming years, reaching seven billion in 2024, and then rising further to 7.5 billion in 2026.

As the most populous country in the world, it should come as no surprise that China is home to the majority of these smartphone users. It is over910 million smartphone usersahead of India in second place with about 650 million. The country with the third highest number of smartphone users is the United States with 249 million users.

2. Time spent on mobile devices

Now that we have an idea of ​​how many people own a smartphone, the next thing you need to know is how much time you spend on it.

In 2019, the average American adult spent money3 hours and 43 minutesper day on mobile devices. It was the first time that time spent on mobile devices exceeded time spent watching television, at 3 hours and 35 minutes.

This gap widened in subsequent years, with time spent on mobile devices estimated to be just under four hours (3 hours and 54 minutes) in 2021, compared to 3 hours and 22 minutes of television time.

If we zoom in a bit on those statistics about smartphones, we see that American adults spent an average of 2 hours and 55 minutes per day on their smartphones in 2019 – nine minutes more than the year before (eMarketer, 2019).

3. People who use phones for product research

This next mobile statistic shows how mobile devices influence the consumer product research process. As the world becomes increasingly digital, information has become widely and easily available online, and consumer habits are adapting accordingly.

This is evident from the latest mobile usage statisticsalmost seven in tenInternet users in the US say they search for customer reviews on their phones in-store before approaching an associate (eMarketer, 2019).

And researching product reviews isn't the only thing mobile users do in-store. 58 percent of them also search for other products similar to the ones they are considering purchasing, and 55 percent look for product specifications.

Such mobile usage statistics underline the importance of providing consumers with a positive mobile experience, and retailers are certainly aware: half of them already have this as one of their keycustomer loyaltystrategies.

People not only use their mobile devices to do product research, but many of them also use them to make purchases.

The latest mobile statistics indicate a heavy reliance on online shopping on mobile devices.More than half (50.9 percent) of online shoppers worldwide currently use their mobile phones to purchase products online at least once a week (DataReportal, 2023).

Of all internet users worldwide, women between the ages of 35 and 44 shop most on their mobile devices. 56.8 percent of them say they have purchased a product online with their mobile device in the past week. Men in the same age group also do most of their shopping on mobile at 52.4 percent. By comparison, only 46.6 percent of male internet users between the ages of 16 and 24 do this.

With so many people shopping on mobile, as an ecommerce business owner you should consider prioritizing your mobile optimization strategy. This is mainly because users who have encountered a negative experience on a mobile website aremuch less likelyto continue purchasing from that company in the future.

5. The possibility of mobile shopping

Considering the ease and rawness ofonline shoppingand the widespread use of mobile devices by consumers, many consumers view the lack of mobile shopping options as a deal breaker.

So if you are still not convinced about the benefits of setting up your e-commerce storemobile commerce, consider this statistic: almostsix out of tenShoppers say that being able to purchase products on mobile devices is a key factor when choosing which brands or retailers to purchase from (Google, 2019).

Like youworking on your online store, focus on the mobile shopping aspect of it. It's important to ensure that the mobile shopping experience is seamless for your consumers.

This means everything from optimizing your store elements (such as images, layout,call to actionbuttons, etc.) for an optimal mobile experience and ensuring short loading times to provide a smooth payment process and enable multiple payment options.

6. Mobile Device Statistics: Traffic

Here's another statistic that highlights the growing popularity of mobile usage, and it's about the increasing share of website traffic from mobile devices.

In early 2015, less than a third (31.16 percent) of global web traffic came from mobile devices. Just six years later, into 2021, that number has skyrocketed54.8 percent, which represents a jump of 75.9 percent (Statista, 2021).

Since the third quarter of 2019, mobile traffic has consistently accounted for more than half of total website traffic worldwide.

And with the arrival of 5G technology, which will provide much faster internet speeds and connections, we can expect mobile traffic to continue to grow. In line with this, experts expect the average data usage on smartphones to increase from 10 GB (by the end of 2020) to35 GB in 2026.

With the mobile usage statistics above, we found that many consumers spend a significant portion of their internet time on mobile devices. In these statistics we break down the media with which they use digital media.

Smartphones are currently ahead70 percentof total digital media time in the US (Comscore, 2019). This is an increase of 22.8 percent compared to 57 percent in 2017.

Of the total time spent consuming digital media on smartphones, we see a clear difference between the time spent on the mobile network and on apps. While the former is unchanged at seven percent from 2017, US consumers now spend 63 percent of their time on digital media via smartphone apps, up from 50 percent in 2017.

From these mobile statistics, it is clear that smartphones are the most popular devices used by internet users to consume digital media. Only 23 percent of the time U.S. consumers spend on digital media takes place on a desktop, and that number drops to seven percent for tablets.

8. Digital advertising costs on mobile

With more and more time spent on mobile devices, it's no wonder advertisers are spending more and more money on digital advertising to reach consumers. So much so that digital ad spending surpassed traditional advertising for the first timei 2019.

Focusing solely on digital advertising, the latest mobile marketing statistics show that digital advertising spend on mobile in 2021 was $129.8, which is $129.8.more than two-thirds(67.9 percent) of total digital ad spend that year (eMarketer, 2021).

This is an annual increase of 26.5 percent, with the largest growth coming from the entertainment sector. In 2021, entertainment industry companies increased their digital ad spend on mobile by 37.5%. Despite the increase in spending, mobile ad spending is still among the lowest at $8.54 billion.

The industries with the largest digital ad spends on mobile devices are retail and consumer packaged goods (CPG), with spends of $30.91 billion and $21.83 billion, respectively.

9. Mobile retail conversion rate

Despite the popularity of mobile shopping, it ise-commerce conversion rateof mobile devices lags behind desktops.

According to the latest mobile statistics, the global conversion rate for mobile phones is the same1.82 percent(Smartinsights, 2019). That's significantly higher for tablets at 3.49 percent, but still behind desktop's conversion rate of 3.90 percent.

A similar split can be seen among US consumers, with conversion rates for mobile phones and tablets at 1.53 percent and 3.36 percent respectively, while those for desktops are 4.14 percent.

This shows that while consumers enjoy browsing and conducting product research on their mobile devices, desktops are still the preferred device for transactions.

While you work on improving your online storeconversiepercentage, use these benchmark numbers to help you measure how well your store is doing.

10. Voice search on mobile

An aspect that you should not miss when optimizing your systemecommerce storefor mobile is the potential of voice search.

Apart from the fact that alreadyover a quarterof the online population use the voice search function of their mobile devices, this number appears to be increasing. As much as60 percentof smartphone users claim to have tried voice search at least once in the past 12 months (Quoracreative, 2019).

While it's more popular among the younger demographic, with more than half of all teens using voice search every day, you might be surprised to learn that around nine percent of 55-64 year olds do so as well.

So apart from optimizing yourdropshipping storefor mobile: don't forget to optimize for voice search as well. This means keeping your copy to the point and focusing on query keywords such aswho what where when whyInHow.

Conclusion

By understanding the mobile shopping trend and how digital ad spend has evolved, you now have a better idea of ​​how consumers are interacting with their mobile devices and what the future holds.

These mobile usage statistics can help you develop a mobile-first strategy that will drive your dropshipping business forward by providing you with greater engagement.Trafficand ultimately sales. So go ahead and use them to give your business an edge now!

Summary: Mobile usage statistics

Here's a look at the mobile usage stats you need to know in 2023:

1. By 2023, there will be 6.8 billion smartphone users worldwide.
2. Adults in the US spend an average of 2 hours and 55 minutes on their smartphones every day.
3. 69 percent of internet users would rather search for reviews on their phone than approach an employee in the store.
4. 50.9 percent of online shoppers worldwide shop on their mobile phone at least once a week.
5. Six in ten shoppers say the ability to shop via mobile is an important factor when choosing a brand.
6. Mobile web traffic accounts for 54.8 percent of global web traffic.
7. 70 percent of total digital media time in the US is spent on smartphones.
8. More than two-thirds of total U.S. digital ad spend in 2021 was for mobile ads.
9. The global retail conversion rate on mobile phones is 1.82 percent, compared to 3.9 percent for desktops.
10. Six in ten smartphone users have tried voice search at least once in the past year.

Start selling online now with Shopify

Start your free trial

Do you want to know more?

• WooCommerce vs Shopify: Which One Is Best?
• BigCommerce vs Shopify: Which is Better?
• How to Write a Business Plan: Step-by-Step Guide
• Starting an Online Business: 10 Easy Steps

Is there anything else you'd like to know about mobile usage statistics that you'd like to include in this article? Let us know in the comments below!