The holiday shopping season has allowed the channel to become a standard form of comparison and purchasing.

The rapidly growing m-commerce trends of browsing, comparing, and actually buying on smartphones and tablets aren’t just a little piece of the fringe, anymore, but are starting to officially become mainstream.

Holiday shoppers, this year, have shown that even when they don’t make purchases, they use their devices.

Many analysts have been looking directly toward the purchasing data to determine whether or not m-commerce trends have been pointing toward the mainstream. However, when that data is considered, while there has been massive year over year growth, it still represents only a sliver of the total online purchases and even less of the buying as a whole. When the definition of mobile shopping is broadened, it soon becomes clear that purchasing is only one of several behaviors for which shoppers use their smartphones and tablets.

These m-commerce trends are important to recognize as they are often deciding factors for online and in store purchases.

That said, even without taking the browsing, price comparisons, receipt of advertising and discount coupons, and other activities into account, there has still been a great deal of growth, so far, over the holiday shopping season when it comes to mobile commerce purchases. But it seems to be in those “process” activities on the way to actually buying that small screens truly shine. IBM Digital Analytics Benchmark reported that almost 40 percent of all of the online traffic on Black Friday and almost a third of all online traffic on Cyber Monday was from smartphones and tablets.

Even though this did not represent the purchases being made, it shows that people are using their smartphones and tablets to visit websites and to look at companies, products, and prices. Because the devices are always with their owners, they are automatically using them, first, to perform quick searches, to locate nearby businesses, to find out whether or not the item that they want is in stock, and to discover the best possible price.

Three years ago, only 4 percent of Cyber Monday’s online traffic came from mobile. This makes it clear that m-commerce trends are headed toward – if they have not already achieved – mainstream status.

Firm raises funds to support global expansion

Citrus Payments, a payment technology firm based in India, has announced that it has raised $5.5 million in funding from its group of investors. The funding comes at an ideal time when mobile payments are becoming more popular among consumers throughout India. Smartphones and tablets are becoming more common among consumers and these devices are exposing many to the concept of mobile commerce. Consumers are showing strong interest in mobile commerce because of the convenience that it represents.

US and European markets prove attractive

Citrus Payments intends to use its new funding to further expand its presence around the world. The firm has produced some popular mobile payments services in the past that have been used by large companies in Asia and elsewhere. The firm expects to find significant success in markets beyond Asia as mobile commerce continues to grow in popularity around the world. Notably, demand for new payment technologies has been on the rise in Europe and the U.S., where mobile device ownership is quite high.

Competition is fierce in the mobile commerce field

Mobile commerce is a competitive field, so Citrus Payments may have a lot of fighting to do before it can establish a strong foothold in new markets. Large companies, such as Square, Google, and PayPal, already boast of a dominating presence in popular markets. A multitude of startups are also vying for the attention of consumers around the world, making it difficult for any single company to stand out, regardless of how much backing it may have from investors.

Security may be a major challenge

Companies that aim to do well in mobile commerce have numerous challenges that they must overcome. Many consumers cite security as the main reason they are not interested in the concept of mobile payments. Addressing this specific issue has been quite problematic, given the nature of technology and security. Citrus Payments has shown that it can overcome some of the challenges it has experienced in the past, but new challenges are emerging at a rapid pace that may test the firm’s flexibility and ability to adapt.