Tablet Commerce

Category: Tablet Commerce

Mobile commerce in Africa drives the continent’s e-commerce sales

Dan Gendro | May 2, 2016

The majority of e-commerce deals in Africa occur over smartphones.

As more Africans acquire and gain internet access via smartphones, the number of e-commerce sales taking place over mobile phones in the continent continues to rise. According to an e-commerce Q1 report data by Criteo, mobile commerce in Africa has particularly taken off in the continent’s urban regions, such as Nigeria.

M-commerce in Nigeria experienced a significant boost in the first quarter of 2016.

Vanguard reported that the study, which was released by the performance marketing firm during the Mobile West Africa conference – recently held in Lagos – revealed that the number of retail e-commerce transactions that took place via smartphones in Nigeria jumped by 73% within Q1 2016. This reflects a worldwide m-commerce trend which has increased by 39% since Q4 2015.

Mobile Commerce in Africa The report, which revealed that smartphones are becoming the leading mobile commerce device in Africa, indicates that smartphones are responsible for approximately 18% of e-commerce transactions in Africa. This is a much higher percentage compared to the estimated 10% share made up by other mobile devices.

When it comes to mobile commerce in Africa, e-commerce sales trends vary from one country to the next.

Criteo’s report also compared mobile sales trends to desktop sales trends in Nigeria and discovered that desktop e-commerce sales were dominant during the weekdays while the sales were about equal among mobile and desktop users on the weekend. The report noted that desktop usage typically increased during office hours with clicks averaging 1200% while clicks though mobile barley made it above 100%. That said, on weekends, this percentage changed with both desktop and mobile usage averaging about 250% across both devices.

Interestingly, Nigeria’s mobile commerce trends differ from South Africa’s. While Nigeria’s e-commerce sales are about equal between mobile and desktop on the weekend, in South Africa, m-commerce dominates on the weekends where retail mobile commerce appears similar to that of South East Asian countries that have a more developed e-commerce sector.

Nevertheless, mobile commerce in Africa is definitely growing. In Nigeria, alone, the report found that mobile conversion rates are steadily on the rise in the country with Android smartphones averaging 1.8% conversion rates, Android tablets at 1.5% conversion rates, and iPhones and iPads averaging 2.9%.

Australia gained $43 billion for its economy through mobile technology

Lucy | April 11, 2016

That figure was generated throughout 2015 and this tech is now expected to boost productivity and workforce participation.

According to the results of a Deloitte Access Economics study, mobile technology last year brought $42.9 billion to the Australian economy and it predicts that it will continue to impact workforce participation while it boosts overall productivity throughout that country and throughout a broad range of demographics.

This already represented a savings of $8.9 billion in workplace participation increases and is predicted to rise.

The figure represented by the revenue from mobile technology for the economy made up 2.6 percent of the total GDP of Australia. It also determined that as a result of mobile tech, approximately 65,000 full time jobs – about one percent of the country’s total workforce – was indirectly supported.

According to Ric Simes, Deloitte Access Economics partner, “Mobile has had a transformative impact on both productivity and labour force participation which, along with population, are two of the ‘three Ps’ we need to get right in terms of driving Australia’s future economic growth.”

The mobile technology report was based on the results of a survey that involve the participation of 1,000 Australians.

This data was combined with that collected throughout 37 countries over the last three decades and determined that young people and part-time workers, people with disabilities, people with children, people living in remote areas and people who are on the edge of retirement are using mobile devices to be able to boost their weekly working hours by an average of 0.6 hours.

Among the respondents, 29 percent said that they worked from home at least part of the time. Among them, nearly 15 percent said that they would be required to work fewer hours each week if they didn’t have mobile tech that makes it possible for them to work remotely and while on the go or at home.

According to Australian Mobile Telecommunications Association (AMTA) chair, Matthew Lobb, mobile technology has undergone a considerable evolution since it was first brought to the market about thirty years ago. He pointed out that its continued development is supported by a growing number of advancements such as the Internet of Things, mobile wallets and self-driving vehicles.