Tag: holiday shopping

A new Adobe Digital Insights report showed that smartphones played a considerable role in online shopping.

Mobile commerce sales came to just over $24 billion throughout the holiday shopping season this year. In fact, Adobe Digital Insights data showed that smartphones and tablets brought in that amount from November 1 through December 24.

That doesn’t include online purchases made over mobile devices at the last moment before Christmas.

Among all the mobile commerce sales this holiday season, smartphones were behind the vast majority. In fact, 68 percent of m-commerce purchases came from smartphones. Tablets were responsible for the remaining 32 percent. This represents a shift in usage as it looks as though people are now leaning toward their phones when they previously preferred the larger screened mobile devices.

Retail mobile commerce sales from smartphones brought in $16.63 billion, with $7.92 billion from tablets.

During the holiday shopping period, mobile devices were used for 31 percent of online retail sales, said the Adobe Digital Insights data. The remaining 69 percent of online purchases from retailers was through laptops and desktops. Last year, mobile shoppers represented 28 percent of purchases and in 2014, they made 19 percent of the purchases.

Adobe Digital Insights analysts predict that m-commerce will continue to take on a rising share of online sales. In fact, they stated that it is likely that this trend would have kicked in as early as the winding down of the holiday season. The reason is that from December 21 onward, many people were attending holiday functions and were more likely to have a smartphone in hand than to be seated at a work computer.

The report pointed out that the current mobile shopping experience still involves a certain degree of friction. This is primarily the result of the increased challenges involved in filling in purchase forms online. That said, it also underscored the fact that a growing number of retailers are working on improving that experience.

Retail mobile commerce sales could greatly benefit from the reduction of that friction. Some retailers are looking into options such as payment card information capture through the device camera, for example.

Inside Secure finds that consumers are using their mobile devices to get their holiday shopping done

A new survey from Inside Secure shows that holiday shopping is having a major impact on mobile commerce. The survey found that 51% of holiday shoppers prefer using a mobile app when they are purchasing products. Doing so is seen as more convenient, as they are able to avoid large crowds when shopping online or accelerate the checkout process when they visit physical stores. Using mobile devices in physical stores, however, is less popular among consumers than using these devices to shop online.

Security concerns keep some consumers away from mobile commerce

According to the survey from Inside Secure, many consumers do not use their mobile devices to pay for products in physical stores because they have security concerns. Some 70% cited identity theft and payment fraud as the reason they avoid mobile commerce in physical stores. Shoppers have also expressed concerns regarding their privacy, as past cyber attacks focused on retailers have highlighted how easily some malicious groups can acquire consumer information and exploit this data for personal gain.

Mobile shopping is on the rise as holiday season approaches

While consumers have concerns regarding security, many believe that mobile commerce is the wave of the future. The mobile commerce space is experiencing healthy growth, powered by the holiday shopping seasons of past years. This year, some 39% of mobile consumers are planning to make an in-store purchase with their smartphones, an increase from the 33% that did so last year. A greater portion of consumers are planning on purchasing products online, using their mobile devices as their primary shopping platform.

Younger consumers are more comfortable with mobile commerce

Notably, the survey found that mobile commerce is most popular among those between the ages of 18 and 44. This demographic tends to be more comfortable with mobile technology, having had a great deal of experience with smartphones and the digital world. The survey also found that iOS users are more likely than their Android counterparts to participate in mobile commerce over the holiday season, making use of Apple’s new mobile payments service, Apple Pay.