Mobile shopping trends of 2010 - French buy more clothes, Brits more cars and Canadians more jewelry

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In a December 29 blog post, online auction site eBay revealed the top mobile shopping trends of 2010, as well as a timeline and map charting major mobile purchase trends throughout the year.

The eBay mobile commerce info-graphic, available at http://www.ebayinc.com/mobilecommerce, provides data on mobile shopping -buying products via a headheld device - over the last year in Australia, Canada, France, Germany, the United Kingdom and the United States.

Internet users can select a country and a time period to see the major purchases in that category or select the "what's hot" tab to reveal the major mobile commerce trends of their chosen country.  

The "what's hot" section reveals that clothing and accessories were the most purchased goods by mobile ebay shoppers in France and Canada, making up 21.7 percent and 13.3 percent of all transactions, respectively. In comparison, mobile eBay shoppers in Australia, the US and the UK were buying more cars and trucks, which accounted for 15.5 percent, 16.5 percent, and 25.9 percent of all purchases. Though not exactly a vehicle, transport related goods were also popular in Germany, where the largest single amounts of purchases (15.4 percent) was made in the category of "auto parts."

Additionally, the data shows that both "cars and trucks" and "auto parts" were popular in all countries,  with one section appearing at least once in the top three - apart from in France, where clothing and accessories accounted for by far the biggest category of purchases made by mobile ebay shoppers.

The top three most purchased* sections by mobile shoppers by country from January 1, 2010 to December 21, 2010, were:

United States:

1.       Cars and trucks - 16.5%
2.       Clothing and accessories - 12.2%
3.       Auto parts - 8.3%

Canada:

1.       Clothing and accessories - 13.3%
2.       Cars and trucks - 10.3%
3.       Jewelry, gems and watches - 7.9%

Australia:

1.       Cars and trucks - 15.5%
2.       Home improvement - 12.2%
3.       Clothing and accessories - 11.7%

Germany:

1.       Auto parts - 15.4%
2.       Cars and trucks - 11.2%
3.       Clothing and accessories - 10.5%

France:

1.       Clothing and accessories - 21.7%
2.       Jewelry, gems and watches - 7.7%
3.       Computers - 7.1%

United Kingdom

1.       Cars and trucks - 25.9%
2.       Clothing and accessories - 10.4
3.       Auto parts - 9.2%

*eBay defines this as "percentage of Gross Merchandise Bought (GMB) based on all categories displayed in the infographic."