More UK consumers plan to up holiday mobile ecommerce spending, study says

Consumers in the United Kingdom plan to do more shopping this holiday season through online payment gateways on their mobile phones than previous years, according to a study conducted by eDigitalResearch for IMRG.

According to its research of 6,000 shoppers, 35 percent indicated they will do more shopping through their smartphones this coming Christmas.

"This year will be one of the first Christmas shopping periods where mobile shopping will be readily available to the majority of consumers," said Derek Eccleston, research director at eDigitalResearch.

Also, 20 percent of respondents said they plan to spend more for online shopping than last year, while approximately one-third plan to spend half of their Christmas budget online. Furthermore, 25 percent indicated they will allocate 75 percent of their holiday spending for ecommerce this year, according to the study.

Worldwide, the number of mobile users continues to rise. A recent study by the research firm Gartner said that the number of worldwide mobile payment users is projected to reach 141.1 million this year and the mobile payments market is expected to surpass $86 billion.