Ever since the pandemic became worse, people around the world have been staying indoors as much as possible. Even their shopping preferences have changed over the course of the last few months. A recent survey by Counterpoint Research on smartphone shopping in the UK, Germany, and Spain paints a similar picture.

UK

Talking about the UK first, the online smartphone sales currently sit at ~35% in the country. According to the research firm, the online sales has moderately increased since Q1 2020. Above all, they sustained even after the re-opening of brick and mortar stores.

The survey revealed that 90% of UK consumers preferred to make their purchase from either electronic stores or supermarkets. That’s because consumers in this country want to experience the device in a “more engaged manner”.

Even retailers like Carphone Warehouse and Currys PC World are aware that consumers prefer buying from large format stores rather than smaller standalone mobile shops

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That’s because these companies allow consumers to buy the latest phones without making an upfront full payment. They also provide options to bundle plan charges with phone instalments, in addition to direct debit options with offers and treats.

As per the UK consumers who participated in the survey, convenience was their top-most priority while shopping followed by probability of cheaper pricing.

That said, almost 60% of this survey respondents have a monthly income of less than £ 1600. More than 40% of individuals are planning to buy a phone from an operator are self-employed. Whereas, more than 50% of those willing to make an upfront payment are either homemakers or unemployed.

Germany and Spain

Unlike the consumers in the UK, those in Germany and Spain have changed their preference for buying smartphones to online by a high margin. 

For instance, the survey revealed that 35% and 30% of respondents from Germany and Spain respectively purchased their current phone online. Most importantly, a whopping 90% of Germans said that their next smartphone purchase will be online compared to 76% Spaniards, which is not a small number anyway.

Further, consumers in these two countries mostly prefer full up-front payment and retailers like Amazon, Media Markt, Saturn, Comtech, Fnac, Conectrol and Walmart.

As for numbers, 41% of Germans chose upfront payment in the survey and 42% of these respondents are salaried. The numbers for Spain is 53% and 61% respectively.

Last but not least, consumers who selected upfront payment earn less than €1,900 per month. They prefer this mode of buying because of cheaper deals and better offers.

Conclusion

Counterpoint Research says that ASPs (average selling prices) of smartphones will decrease as consumers are expected to reduce their budget. Also, going by their survey, most of the consumers will opt for a full upfront payment for their next phone to reduce a deferred liability.

Lastly, respondents from all the three countries said that they are not looking to reduce touchpoints despite they are concerned about the COVID-19 pandemic.

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Barely 3 days after we reported that the Nokia 3310 and its senior siblings, the Nokia 3, Nokia 5 and Nokia 6 were all up for pre-orders in Europe, details have emerged that the Nokia 3310 is receiving an unexpected number of interests. Pre-orders doesn’t transform into actual sales but then, they are indicators of how popular the phone is when it goes up for sale and for a cheap €49 iconic feature phone, that could as well transform into real sales.

UK retailer Carphone Warehouse disclosed this much recently, stating that it received an unprecedented level of demand for the feature phone. Call it nostalgia if you like, but the 3310 was one of Nokia most successful devices in its hey days. The new Nokia 3310 comes with a lot of differences, mostly upgrades in its specs and the design is also totally different but those seem not to have affected the level of interest in the phone.

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As a reminder, the Nokia 3310 comes with a 2.4-inch curved window screen with an entire dimension of 115.6 x 51 x 12.8mm.  The device is available in four color options — Warm Red and Yellow with glossy texture and Grey and Dark Blue with Matte finish. You can check out details on the specs from here. The Nokia 3310 is expected to go on sale in Q2 2017 globally for €49 (~$52).

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