For the First Time, Smart Phones Beat Tablets for Share of Online Transactions, Adyen Says

For e-commerce merchants, the screen is getting smaller very quickly, according to the latest quarterly report from payments company Adyen.

Some 17.5% of all e-commerce transactions on Adyen’s platform in the fourth quarter were made with a smart phone, compared to 16% with a tablet, the Netherlands-based company said late Monday in releasing its Mobile Payments Index. That’s the first time phones have overcome tablets for remote payments. As recently as the third quarter, tablets still led smart phones with a 17% share of transactions versus 14% for phones.

What’s more, with nearly 34% of all transactions now on mobile devices, the mobile share of e-commerce at Adyen now exceeds one-third of all transactions.

Adeyn’s figures are based on browser-based activity, as it does not track in-app payments. The Amsterdam-based company also maintains an office in San Francisco and recently announced it will be introducing point-of-sale payments in the U.S.

The balance in favor of smart phones is especially wide in the U.S. and other key markets. In the U.S., 23% of transactions occurred on a phone, compared to just 8% on tablets, the report says. In Europe, the corresponding shares were 23% and 11%, and in Asia, 29.5% and 4.5%.

Individual European markets showed not only a proclivity for mobile, but for smart phones in particular. This is especially true in the U.K., where fully 34% of e-commerce transactions took place on smart phones, with an overall mobile share of fully 49%.

But tablets still produce higher tickets, and now they even beat out desktop computers. The overall average ticket for the Apple iPad in the fourth quarter was $107, nosing out desktops at $106. Android tablets came in at $86, followed by the iPhone ($83) and Android phones ($73).

Asian payment brands rank highest for mobile use online. Japan’s JCB saw 54% of its Adyen traffic flow through mobile devices, according to the report, good for first place among all brands and fully 7 points higher than in the third quarter. Following were China’s Alipay (44%) and UnionPay (31%). These, too, enjoyed a surge in mobile activity, seeing their shares rise from 35% and 23%, respectively.

“As mobile become the primary way for global shoppers to go online, and payment methods such as JCB see over half of online payments on mobile, the era of a mobile-first approach to payments is upon us,” said Roelant Prins, chief commerce officer at Adyen, in  a statement.