Category: Tablet Commerce

A new report has predicted that tablets will lead the channel to a $50 billion in 2014.

A recently released report by eMarketer has added yet another piece of evidence to the claim that mobile is no longer a convenience or a fad, as t-commerce starts to come into its own and will lead the way to a highly valuable marketplace.

The report indicated that tablets alone will generate $24 billion in sales in North America by the end of 2013.

However, that is merely the beginning, as the report also indicated that this t-commerce figure will climb nearly twice over, to reach $50 billion in the United States by the close of 2014. This not only indicates that the role of mobile is growing explosively, but it also shows that tablets are now playing a vitally important part in this increase.

The spending in both m- and t-commerce has jumped tremendously since 2011.

Including both smartphone and t-commerce, the mobile spending reached nearly $25 billion. That represents a spike of 81 percent over the figures that were achieved the year before. This year, it is expected that m-commerce will be cutting a share worth 15 percent of the total online sales numbers, according to the predictions from eMarketer.

From the t-commerce side, on its own, tablets will make up over 9 percent of all sales made online. By 2016, eMarketer feels that tablets will represent up to 17 percent of the total sales online.

The majority of the t-commerce traffic will come from the popular iPad. The report predicted that “the bulk” of the tablet based web traffic will come from this Apple device, as it currently accounts for around 90 percent of the web traffic from this type of gadget. Though this may shift somewhat within that time, it will still maintain its majority share, said the report.

Previously performed t-commerce research has already indicated that consumers are more likely to use a tablet than a smartphone for doing their shopping online. It also determined that when those customers make purchases, they’re likely to spend a larger average amount of money than their cell phone using counterparts.

The massive online marketplace is demonstrating a continuing upward momentum on smartphones and tablets.

Analysts are discovering that the mobile commerce performance of some of the original players in the smartphone and tablet shopping channels – such as eBay Inc. – are among the top performing locations and that they are now ready to continue the growth they have established.

It is also among these companies that the most established data is available regarding individual performance.

According to Michael Graham, an analyst from Canaccord Genuity, in a letter that went out to clients “E-commerce should continue to grow in the mid-teens as online shopping models become more useful, more efficient and more mobile, and eBay has positioned itself well against this opportunity.”

Analysts are bullish about the positioning that eBay has established in the mobile commerce environment.

Similar to Mr. Graham, Colin Gillis, an analyst from BGC Partners has identified the online marketplace as his top exposure to e-commerce pick for this year. He even issued a statement in the form of haiku that indicated his belief that mobile commerce could lead eBay’s value to one day exceed that of Amazon.

Graham also pointed out that from his company’s perspective, that “We believe eBay’s fundamental outlook is stable and could improve further over the course of 2013”. He explained that the gross merchandise volume (GMV) year over year from eBay has been consistently accelerating. This is because of a number of new and active users. He feels that a rapidly growing number of people are finding at eBay is useful, and that this is “likely driven by mobile”.

Gillis also took the opportunity to point out the value of mcommerce at eBay. In fact, he expressed that his company feels that the online auction site has “the strongest suite of offering for mobile commerce between its PayPal and its marketplace businesses.” He added that nearly one third of all purchases that are made at eBay are done from a smartphone or tablet device. Moreover, its estimates show that it will likely have processed more than $10 billion in mobile payments in the last year.