According to a new study published by research firm comScore, mcommerce usage in France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the UK rose a whooping 80 cent over the past year.

The report also showed that about 13.5 million smartphone users in these countries accessed mobile comer sites from their mobile devices in the three month period until the end of May 2011.

The UK recorded the highest growth at 163 per cent since May last year. Along with accessing online retailers the users also browsed auction sites at 6.3 per cent of all mobile users in the leading five European markets. About 5.1 per cent said that they went to online shopping guides.

Jeremy Copp, comScore Europe vice-president for mobile said, "While mobile access offers retailers incremental occasions to engage with customers, it also provides customers the ability to easily compare prices at competing retailers while inside a particular retailer's store." He added that the retailers should evaluate mobile shopping behavior carefully to work well in the dynamic environment.

Meanwhile, latest figures released by the British Retail Consortium showed that number of smartphone users using their smartphones to conduct online shopping searches has increased 27 per cent over the year.