A majority of Taiwanese consumers prefer to use PCs over smartphones when shopping online, according to a poll released on March 15 by the Market Intelligence and Consulting Institute (產業情報研究所).
In the survey, which collected 1,068 valid samples in the fourth quarter of last year, the government-sponsored research institute said that 63.4 percent of consumers said they often used PCs to browse e-commerce Web sites and 69.9 percent completed their online transactions using a PC.
The survey found the top reason for consumers preferring PCs over mobile devices was that the screens of smartphones or tablets are too small (44.9 percent).
They also felt it was not easy to manipulate mobile devices to complete online purchases (29.8 percent).
In addition, consumers said it is not easy to compare prices when they use mobile devices (27.6 percent) and they thought that online vendors had failed to provide comprehensive functions for mobile devices (27.1 percent), the survey showed.
Consumers also said they found information provided by apps on mobile devices to be annoying (21.5 percent), which is partly why they do not like to do online shopping using a smartphone or tablet, the survey showed.
However, the survey found that younger Taiwanese do use their smartphone or tablet more than a PC when shopping online.
According to the survey, 52.9 percent of consumers aged 18 to 20 often use their smartphone to complete online shopping transactions, while 79.4 percent preferred to use whatever mobile device they have.
The three most popular online shopping platforms among Taiwanese PC users were Momo.com Inc (富邦媒體), Yahoo-Kimo Inc (雅虎奇摩) and Ruten.com (露天拍賣), while PChome Online Inc (網路家庭) was most favored by heavy Internet users, according to international market information advisory firm comScore Inc.
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