Purchasing on the go: discover Europe’s top mobile shopping apps!

MasterCard announced the “Mobile Top App Index”, a unique European Index of mobile shopping apps. The index not only showcases the best mobile shopping apps from across 36 European countries, including Romania, it also reveals the various ways in which people embrace mobile technology when shopping on the go.

Recognizing the best shopping apps in 19 retail categories and identifying major trends in the industry, the cross-sector survey sheds light on the changing habits of shoppers and app developers, and their interaction with retailers.

The results of the index show that the best shopping apps came from two major markets in Europe, the UK and Germany. Of the 19 best shopping apps, 5 came from the UK, 5 from Germany, and 2 were from Turkey. The UK and Germany are not only outstanding in terms of the quality of their apps, but also in their quantity, both having more than 70 shopping apps available. The average number of shopping apps in Europe, per country, was 30.

Mobile as a shop window
Dr Carsten Sørensen, Associate Professor (Reader) in Digital Innovation at the London School of Economics and Political Science, identified more trends. “We have seen that merchants have already realized that being present on mobile is important, and that for a significant number of applications the screens of mobile devices are often regarded simply as another shop window. Some apps were successfully able to keep the shopping process simple while also giving just enough information about the product or service to make the shopping experience fit easily to the mobile lifestyle.”

Jen Copestake, BBC Click, added: “Innovation has to happen for retailers to expand their businesses and move forward  so  everyone can use their apps online. The quality of the user experience of so many apps was really impressive and I’m wondering where the developers will take the apps in the future and how they will differentiate between their competitors.”

MasterCard’s Index also showed how European retailers and app developers are currently most interested in seven retail categories, and that those produce around 65% of the apps: Meal Delivery, Taxi, Public transport ticketing (railway, mass transit, bus, etc.), Publishing (books, magazines etc.), Accommodation, Parking ticketing, and Entertainment (cinema, theatre, festivals, sports events etc.)

Payment cards are by far the most popular payment method for app owners/developers, with 52% of all shopping apps offering this type of payment. Cash on delivery is still significant, and available in 36%of all shopping apps. Online wallets, however, are quickly gaining momentum and are now found in 24% of the best apps. From those shortlisted from the total base, online card payment and online wallets represent a significantly higher proportion – 82% and 39% respectively.