Tag: mobile commerce survey

Most consumers haven’t yet warmed to the idea of purchasing over their smartphones and tablets.

Despite the fact that this will likely be the biggest year (by far) for mobile commerce during the holiday season, the latest research is still showing that most consumers are less than enchanted with actually making a purchase through the use of their devices.

The research results were recently revealed by ICM, and were published in Retail Week.

The ICM research showed that 60 percent of all shoppers don’t plan to use mobile commerce at all throughout the length of the holiday shopping season. That said, one third of the respondents to the survey do plan to use their devices in at least some way as a part of the overall shopping process.

At the same time, the survey also showed that the future is looking very bright for mobile commerce.

We may not be there yet, but things are looking very promising in the not too distant future, due to younger consumers. It is that age group that appears to be the most open to purchasing through mobile commerce. In fact, 14 percent of those between the ages of 18 and 34 are expected to conduct a considerable amount of their Christmas shopping using smartphones and tablets.

A number of retailers have already been discussing their predictions regarding mobile commerce over the winter holiday shopping season. According to Andy Street, the managing director of John Lewis, there is already a 40 percent share of site traffic that comes from smartphones and tablets, so they are gearing up for a Christmas season that is heavily mobile. He stated that “Purchasing from desktop is moving to mobile. It is at 40% and growing very rapidly and we expect to see that moving forward again,” and added that “We are preparing for what we anticipate will be the UK’s first ‘mobile Christmas’.”

Home Retail, the parent company of Argos, has also applauded mobile commerce. Last week, it shared its own figures, saying that there has been an increase of 133 percent in sales over smartphones and tablets, and that 17 percent of its total sales in the second quarter were from these devices.

Some companies and techniques are working to expand the use of shopping over this channel.

Mobile commerce is taking off very rapidly but, at the same time, the number of consumers who are using the channel are exceptionally low compared to the number who shop in person or who buy over the internet on their laptops and desktops.

There are a number of reasons that people have hesitated to turn to their smartphones to buy.

People frequently hold back from shopping via smartphone and tablet because mobile commerce often comes with slow internet speeds, improperly optimized websites, long page load times, and concerns over the security of payments. Despite the fact that online shopping no matter where the consumer may be provides a tremendous opportunity for convenience, variety, and price comparisons but even the best apps and websites often lead individuals to learn about a product and then purchase it on a desktop or in a brick and mortar store instead of buying over that channel.

However, many mobile commerce using companies are working to boost the numbers.

The latest sales data from Capgemini and IMRG have shown that from the second quarter of last year to the same quarter this year, there was an increase in mobile commerce sales from 11.6 percent of online purchases to 23 percent.

There are many reasons that consumers are still hesitating to buy over mobile commerce. They include the following:

• Reduced internet performance that doesn’t meet the expectations of consumers.
• Heavy page weight that leads to increased load times.
• Redirection issues
• Security concerns

A mobile commerce survey in which 728 people participated showed that among all of the various tasks that people complete using their smartphones or tablets, “reserve and collect” services, and “shopping online” were still lower than many companies would hope. Among those respondents, only 9 percent shopped online and 27 percent used reserve and collect services (where an item is ordered to be put aside in a store and the customer picks it up in person). This suggests to many that a “click to collect” service may be more appealing to consumers than actually completing the order to be shipped online by way of a small screen device.