MUMBAI: Purchasing patterns in the country are seeing a change. While visits to the kirana store continue, online purchases made through mobile phones in India have grown by more than 100 per cent over the past two years. This indicates a steep upward trend in e-commerce propelled by expediency, reveals the MasterCard Online Shopping Survey 2014, which covered 14 countries across Asia Pacific.

China continues to lead the chart among mobile shoppers with 70.1 per cent of the respondents polled having used the device to make online purchases. India (62.9 per cent) and Taiwan (62.6 per cent) follow next with Thailand (58.8 per cent) and Indonesia (54.9 per cent) rounding off the top five.

Some of the key takeaways of the report:

-India ranks second with 81.2 per cent of respondents accessing the internet for online shopping while China leads with 86.6 per cent.

-95 per cent of Indian respondents with a mobile phone have access to the internet through it (up by 20.2 points since 2012)

-The number of Indian respondents, who have made at least one purchase in the last three months, has increased from 70.9 per cent in 2012 to 94 per cent in 2014.

-The major factors impacting online purchases include the security of payment facility (86.8 per cent) followed by the price or monetary value of items (86.6 per cent) and convenient payment methods (86.2 per cent)

MasterCard South Asia area head Vikas Varma said, “Digital payment solutions like mobile banking apps and digital wallets will go a long way to further enrich the purchasing experience for the evolving consumer. The survey shows that there is a strong need to provide not only secure, but also convenient payments solutions as consumers move to a more digital and sophisticated lifestyle.”

Furthermore, in India the top three reasons for driving smart phone shopping were the ability to shop on the go (47.7 per cent), the growing availability of apps that makes it easier to shop (45.3 per cent) and convenience (38.1 per cent). Mobile phones/mobile gadget apps topped the list of items purchased through smartphones (28.8 per cent), followed by tickets for cinema and movie theatres (26.7 per cent) and clothing/fashion accessories (24 per cent).

For online transactions, the most common payment methods used are debit cards and cash. New mobile technologies are also gaining traction among consumers in the region, with mobile banking apps having the highest awareness-familiarity levels (38.3 per cent) followed by in-app shopping (28.7 per cent) and digital wallets (24.4 per cent).