Tag: e-commerce

IBM report shows that mobile traffic and shopping is on the rise in the US

Mobile now accounts for nearly half of all online retail traffic in the United States, according to the latest IBM Digital Analytics Benchmark. The report highlights the growing importance of the mobile space and how it is having a major impact on commerce in the digital world. The report makes note of the mobile commerce activity on Valentine’s Day, showcasing an increase in mobile shopping over what was recorded on the same day in the previous year.

Mobile traffic accounts for nearly half of all online retail traffic this year

According to the report, online shopping, as a whole, grew by 10% on Valentine’s Day. This may be due to numerous factors, including cold weather and powerful storms in some parts of the country. The report shows that mobile traffic accounted for 46.5% of all online traffic, highlighting the fact that many consumers are now using their smartphones and tablets to shop online. Higher traffic does not represent more sales, however.

Mobile commerce still represents a small portion of digital sales when compared to PC

The report shows that mobile commerce represented 23% of all online sales, which is a 35% increase over mobile commerce sales last year. Mobile still represents a relatively small portion of online retail sales, however, as sales made from PCs remain the most significant force in online retail. The report shows that tablet users typically spent more than their smartphone counterparts. Tablet users spend an average of $98.56 per order, whereas smartphone users spent an average of $92.37 per order.

Mobile commerce continues to thrive because of its convenient nature

While PC still dominates the online retail space, mobile commerce is beginning to become a more prominent force. Many consumers are opting to shop for and purchase products from their mobile devices because of how convenient such a practice is. In the coming years, it is likely to become more common for consumers to participate in mobile commerce, especially during the holidays, when they want to avoid crowds and enjoy a convenient shopping experience.

Among the primary barriers to paying via smartphone has been a concern that it is not secure.

Although mobile payments are becoming increasingly popular among smartphone and tablet users, they are still not increasing in use at the rate that many in the industry had predicted, despite its broad availability.

Among the main concerns that consumers have expressed is in the form of worries over its security.

That said, Zapp, a mobile payments provider, has now released a report that says that using smartphones to complete purchase transactions is actually safer than buying something over an e-commerce website. Within the report, the company explained that people using this type of service can better “…carry out secure transactions…” than would be possible if they were shopping at the typical online commerce website.

Zapp feels that mobile payments can allow a consumer to shop with the same security as they would with other transactions.

According to David Emsworth, a spokesperson for Zapp, the smartphone based payments ecosystem is undergoing an evolution that should make it possible for a consumer to use a mobile wallet with the same confidence in its safety and security as they would have when using any other transaction platform.

That said, Emsworth does admit that among the reasons that mobile wallets have not yet faced the types of usage popularity that would draw as much attention to them from hackers as has been created by credit cards. As there aren’t that many users, there aren’t as many criminals out there who are targeting the method.

Potential thieves aren’t yet spending the type of time and effort on cracking mobile wallet systems and platforms as they are on systems that have a considerably larger usage base. That said, as this type of transaction becomes increasingly mainstream, it is unavoidable that those thieves will start to place more of a focus on those smartphone based platforms.

Therefore, while Zapp may be right in saying that mobile payments are currently actually a safer method of shopping than submitting a credit card number into an e-commerce checkout system, it is unknown as to whether or not that will remain the case as consumers start to use these digital wallets on a larger scale.