Dive Brief:

• U.S. web shoppers are making more higher-priced purchases via mobile devices, a trend well established among consumers in other parts of the world, Stripe said in a report last week on checkout trends.
• Mobile sales among U.S. consumers “gained share across every purchase size we measured in the last two years,” payment software firm Stripe said in the April 7 report, including by 4.1 percentage points on purchases between $500 and $2,000. Stripe did not respond to a question seeking comment on sales percentages by price.
• Globally, 65% of transactions under $50 now happen on mobile devices at businesses using Stripe, according to the report. “As mobile checkout becomes faster and more trustworthy, shoppers have fewer reasons to switch devices to complete a purchase,” the company said. The report was based on Stripe-processed transactions from about 20,000 businesses between August 2023 and February 2026.

Dive Insight:

Digital wallets account for a large measure of e-commerce payment migration away from desktop, Stripe said in the report. Stripe, with dual headquarters in Dublin, Ireland, and South San Francisco, California, provides payment technology for merchants.

“Digital wallets reduce the friction of manual entry, stronger authentication makes mobile purchases more secure, and shoppers already browse, compare, and buy primarily on their phones in many markets,” the company wrote. “As mobile checkout becomes faster and more trustworthy, shoppers have fewer reasons to switch devices to complete a purchase.”

Digital wallets have gained popularity due to transaction speed. Average checkout time with a wallet is 42 seconds compared to 85 seconds for a manual card entry, according to three months of Stripe data ending in February 2026.

Despite the growth of mobile payments, U.S. and Canadian consumers leave their devices for desktop computers as the price of goods rise. Among American shoppers, purchases made on desktops comprised more than half (52%) of purchases that cost $500 or more, compared to their using that method for about one-third of purchases for $99 or less, according to the report.

“Cross-device behavior still matters, especially in North America, where shoppers often discover on mobile and purchase later on desktop,” Stripe said in the report. “But mobile now plays a central role in conversion, including for more expensive purchases, making consistency across devices increasingly important.”

Fraud actors are also targeting desktop computers more often, according to a March report on fraud tactics from LexisNexis Risk Solutions. Attacks on desktop browser transactions more than doubled last year in North America, while there was a 77% drop in attacks on mobile app transactions, the LexisNexis report said.

Both the LexisNexis and Stripe reports showed a generational divide emerging. Digital wallet use is highest among those under 30, according to a Stripe-commissioned survey of 1,607 consumers in the fourth quarter of 2025. More than three quarters (79%) of consumers ages 18-29 say they’d use a digital wallet, compared to 42% of those 65 and older, the survey results showed.

Mobile is the preferred checkout method in Asia, Europe, the Middle East and Africa, with more than half of shoppers using such devices across all price tiers Stripe measured, up to $2,000, the report showed. 

A preference for mobile-based commerce is even more pronounced in certain markets. “In Japan and Ireland, for example, desktop usage never accounts for more than 30% of checkout activity,” the report said.