Online retail website visits and orders in the UK 2024, by device

During the fourth quarter of 2024, smartphones accounted for 78 percent of retail site visits in the United Kingdom and were used to make 75  percent of online shopping orders. Meanwhile, desktop computers generated 20 percent of retail website traffic and were behind 24 percent of all purchases.

Digital and contactless: new ways to pay

Using smartphones for online and in-person shopping has become increasingly popular. Consumers now enjoy a variety of options when it comes to digital wallets and contactless payments. The share of consumers using digital wallets in the United Kingdom reached 40 percent in 2024. One brand appears at the top, at around 80 percent of usage, when it comes to e-commerce payment methods, PayPal, with double of use compared to the second placed, Apple Pay.

PayPal: dominating digital payments

After being founded in 1998 and becoming an independent company in 2015, PayPal is now one of the most widely used digital payment platforms globally, especially for e-commerce. Due to its reputation for security and ease of use, the brand is widely accepted by consumers. In 2024, in countries such as Mexico, Germany and Switzerland, consumers use PayPal for online payments over 80 percent of the time.