Tag: ipsos

M-commerce is becoming increasingly commonplace in Africa

| October 13, 2015

A new report from the GSMA has shown that smartphone shopping and transactions are on the rise.

The most recent GSMA: Mobile 360 Series report, which focused on the Africa conference, showed that digital and m-commerce are rapidly rising in Africa and that this is being greatly driven by a boost in internet penetration throughout the continent.

The report’s findings were based on consumer research data that was collected in March 2015 by Ipsos.

What the report showed was that 20 percent of internet users in South Africa have made a purchase online either over computers or m-commerce. It also revealed that an additional 48 percent said that they expected to shop online in the future. It also said that mobile shopping will become a key component in the growth of the overall digital commerce market within Sub-Saharan Africa, since most internet users within that part of the world will be accessing the internet by way of smartphones and other mobile devices.

These findings and conclusions align well with those made by other m-commerce focused reports.

M-commerce - AfricaA survey released by In Mobi in 2014 was already showing that 83 percent of consumers said that they intended to shop online over a smartphone or tablet in the following year. This was an increase of 15 percent over that firm’s figures from 2013 and it involved the participation of 14,000 people across 14 different countries.

This is only being helped by the fact that there are now several established online shopping sites within the Sub-Saharan African region and many of them are offering transactions that can be conducted cross-border. Jumia stands out among them. It has been around since 2012, at which time it was launched through the funding provided by Rocket Internet. That company has been greatly successful and has undergone a considerable expansion throughout that part of the continent, starting in Nigeria, but moving outward to a number of other countries such as Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania, Ghana, Cameroon and Senegal.

A central component of Jumia’s strategy is m-commerce. It has already entered in to partnerships with Millicom and MTN to push growth into the future through increases in traffic from mobile users by way of promotions, cross-selling, joint advertising campaigns and payment facilitation.

Mobile commerce in Russia parallels that of Western Europe

| February 25, 2015

The results of a PayPal study are suggesting that people are smartphone shopping trends are quite similar.

PayPal, the online payments giant, has released the results of a recent study on mobile commerce, which showed that the use of smartphones and tablets for shopping in Russia is almost popular as this trend in Europe.

The results of the study were put out in a PayPal press release which compared the mobile shopping trends.

According to the head of PayPal Russia, Vladimir Malyugin, “Russian internet users are no different from other consumers in the major e-commerce markets, and they are increasingly using [mobile devices] to purchase goods and make payments — it’s faster and more convenient.” The survey was conducted in conjunction with Ipsos, a market research service. It looked into the behaviors of 17,500 consumers throughout 22 different countries, in terms of their shopping behaviors. Among those respondents were 793 people who resided in Russia, as of October of last year.

The research found that mobile commerce was used by Russians for an average of 2.6 purchses per month.

Study for Mobile CommerceIn Western Europe, the average number of purchases per month was quite similar, at three. When it came to sales completed specifically by way of tablets, Western Europe was only just slightly ahead of Russia, at 2.4 sales per month, compared to 2.38 sales per month, respectively, said the report.

Furthermore, the users of mobile devices in Russia were willing to purchase a broader range of different types of product and service when using those gadgets. Among smartphone owners, 25 percent said that they would be willing to purchase something within a brick and mortar store through the use of their device. Another 22 percent said that they would be willing to make reservations, or that they would order a meal ahead of their arrival, through their smartphone.

As a part of the mobile commerce trend as a whole, using smartphones to complete payments transactions was also appealing to many Russians. In 2010, mobile payments represented only 1 percent of the full e-commerce market in the country, whereas last year, that figure had made it to 20 percent, said the report.