Tag: m-commerce report

Shoppers heading out for supplies at the beginning of the school year have been increasingly using smartphones.

According to a new Back to School Shopping: 2013 Trends mobile commerce report that was released by Placed, Inc., almost half of all parents who own smartphones used their devices to help them to find discounts such as coupons while they were shopping for school supplies for their children, this year.

The report also indicated that many of the parents were actually making their purchases on their smartphones.

Its estimates showed that over 20 percent of parents who owned smartphones actually purchased school supplies through mobile commerce. These statistics are providing a great deal of insight into the current trends, as well as those that may be expected over the holiday season, this year.

The mobile commerce survey was based on the feedback of more than 12,000 smartphone owners.

Each of the participants had at least one child. Beyond discovering that mobile commerce shopping activity has increased, it also underscored the growing value of the showrooming trend, which had previously been seen as a threat to brick and mortar stores.

It revealed that nearly two in every five smartphone using parents used their smartphones for mobile commerce purchases, but also used “showrooming” behaviors to view their products in physical stores before performing online research to make sure that they found the precise item they want, and at the best price.

Brick and mortar shops have previously felt threatened by showrooming, feeling worried that they would lose their business to the competition while shoppers were standing under their roofs. However, that doesn’t seem to be the way that mobile commerce works. Among the surveyed parents, 35 percent had accessed retailer apps or websites from their smartphones while in those specific stores. This suggests that showrooming can help to lead to solidified brand loyalty.

That said, the survey also showed that some retail shops were more effective than others at appealing to the mobile commerce loving parents. One of the more successful players, for example, was Macy’s, which has a highly mobile friendly experience, and where parents with smartphones were 20 percent more likely to visit a physical store than the average customer regardless of device use.

The report on an index has indicated that the sales over smartphones and tablets have massively risen.

The IMRG Capgemini eRetail Sales Index data has now been released and it has indicated that the growth that has been experienced over the last year in mobile commerce has been tremendous.

The data compared the sales that were made this June with those that were achieved in June 2012.

What the Index noted was that the sales over mobile commerce had increased by 136 percent this June in comparison to those from last year at the same time. The index as a whole had increased by 8 percent in May 2013.

The research also indicated that there was growth in the mobile commerce conversion rates.

What the data from the index showed was that mobile commerce conversion rates grew from having been 1.3 percent in June 2012, to this year’s much more promising 2.0 percent. This is a tremendous increase in the conversion rate and will be a meaningful one for people who are selling over the channel.

A great deal of the credit for the increase in mobile commerce conversion rates was handed to tablets, which are becoming increasingly popular and are used more frequently by online shoppers.

According to the Capgemini head of retail consulting and technology, Chris Webster, “The mCommerce Index remains strong as consumer confidence in purchasing goods and services via smartphones and tablets continue to grow.” He also went on to explain that “The findings provide further evidence of the value mobile technologies have brought to the retail sector as consumers continue to shop via this channel.”

This is a strong indication that retailers who are not placing a notable focus on mobile commerce would be advised to do so or risk falling behind their competition who are becoming more appealing and convenient to consumers who are using their smartphones for a growing number of purposes every day.

At the same time that mobile commerce was excelling, overall online retail sales also saw a massive year over year increase, with current levels being 20 percent higher than they were last year. This is the largest growth that has been recorded in two years. The monthly increase from May to June this year was 2.4 percent and represented the first time in five years that there was a growth between those two months.