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More People Now Shop on Amazon Using Smartphones and Tablets Than Computers

2 minute read
Amazon.com Illustrations Ahead Of Earnings Figures
Bloomberg—Bloomberg via Getty Images
By Lisa Eadicicco

Amazon popularized the idea of shopping from your couch on a laptop rather than heading into crowded stores in the early 2000s. This holiday season, however, most of the company’s shopping traffic didn’t come from those browsing on laptops or desktop computers. It was from mobile shoppers.

Nearly 70 percent of Amazon.com shoppers placed orders using a mobile device during this holiday season, the company announced on Monday. That’s up from the near 60 percent of Amazon customers that shopped via mobile during 2014’s holiday season and the “more than half” of shoppers that browsed using phones and tablets in 2013. The number of customers shopping through Amazon’s mobile app over the holidays also doubled this year.

Look Inside Amazon’s New York City Warehouse

An Amazon employee walks down an aisle in the company's New York fulfillment center to retrieve items for an order.GIF by Josh Raab for TIME
Employees responsible for picking items from Amazon's warehouse shelves to compile an order are called "pickers."GIF by Josh Raab for TIME
Since customers can opt to get items delivered as quick as an hour, Amazon Prime Now sells frozen foods, ice cream, and other groceries. GIF by Josh Raab for TIME
Once all of the items in the order are packaged, employees label them to prepare them for delivery.GIF by Josh Raab for TIME
The orders are then placed on racks when they're ready to be handed off to Amazon's couriers. GIF by Josh Raab for TIME
Each rack is designated for packages to be delivered in different New York City neighborhoods, such as the Lower East Side or Long Island City.GIF by Josh Raab for TIME
Prime Now orders are then taken down to the building's main floor through a specific entrance designated for Prime Now deliveries.GIF by Josh Raab for TIME
Amazon's couriers deliver the packages by foot, subway, or car depending on which mode of transportation is the fastest. GIF by Josh Raab for TIME

It’s not entirely surprising to hear that more people are choosing to shop on their mobile devices rather than laptops and desktops. Other large Web companies have observed this shift over the past several years and have tailored their services to cater more easily to mobile. Google, for instance, revealed in October that more than half of its 100 billion monthly searches come from mobile devices. The company is in the process of rolling out a new feature for mobile search that makes certain web pages load faster in mobile browsers.

Retailers are also noticing that more customers are starting to shop using smartphones and tablets. Walmart announced in December that more than 70% of traffic to its website is coming from mobile, and almost half of orders placed between Thanksgiving and Dec. 1 were placed using a mobile device.

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