Pursuits

Smartphones Overtake Computers as Top E-Commerce Traffic Source

  • Retailers face challenges in mobile payment, checkout systems
  • Study projects phones will reach 60% of traffic by end of 2017
Photographer: Chris Ratcliffe/Bloomberg
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For retailers at least, the most important screens are now the small ones.

Smartphones accounted for 45.1 percent of web-shopping traffic in the first quarter of this year, edging out computers at 45 percent, according to a study from Demandware, an e-commerce software provider. The firm, which was acquired by Salesforce.com Inc. this month, projects that number will continue to increase, with phones accounting for 60 percent of e-commerce visits by the end of next year.