Tag: m-commerce

Forrester Research predicts healthy growth for US mobile commerce

Forrester Research, a leading market research firm, has released a new report concerning U.S. mobile payments and the growth the sector is expecting to see in the coming years. Mobile commerce has begun to gain momentum throughout the U.S., largely due to the increasing number of NFC-enabled mobile devices and the rapid adoption of mobile commerce being seen among retailers. Consumers have expressed their interest and willingness to participate in mobile commerce, pushing mobile payments to reach new heights.

Report forecasts mobile payments to reach $90 billion in 2017

According to Forrester Research, mobile payments in the U.S. will reach $90 billion by 2017. The firm predicts a 48% compound annual growth rate over the next two years. The firm expects in-store mobile payments, general mobile commerce, and peer-to-peer transactions to be the driving factors behind this healthy growth. The report notes that a strong focus on mobile commerce coming from numerous companies spread across equally numerous industries is raising awareness of mobile payments among consumers. These consumers, in turn, are discovering mobile commerce services that fit their needs and make use of these services extensively.

Retail industry to play major role in growth of mobile commerce

Forrester Research expects to see significant progress made in mobile commerce come from the retail industry. Over the next five year, the firm forecasts that retailers will put more focus on mobile commerce, potentially seeing major benefits from doing so. During the 2012 holiday season, retailers saw major gains from their focus on mobile commerce, with Black Friday and Cyber Monday producing a great deal of profit for many of the country’s large retailers.

Holiday season places momentum behind mobile commerce

The success of mobile commerce during the 2012 holidays generated a great deal of momentum, encouraging retailers to continue or increase their focus on mobile consumers. While retailers are expected to face significant challenges in the years ahead, most of which will come in the form of competition with other retailers, Forrester Research expects that the industry will continue seeing positive results in regards to mobile commerce.

The example of Sephora has been used to support this claim about the channel.

Experts in mobile commerce and marketing have been looking at some of the larger players in the channel and have stated that they expect a positive future for shopping over smartphones.

Those in the industry are increasingly convinced that this environment has become vital to a company’s survival.

Johnna Marcus, an executive from Sephora, the beauty product retailer, explained that mobile commerce had been a highly positive experience for that company, and that it anticipates further gains in that sphere will present themselves in 2013. Based on last year’s numbers, that business is justified in feeling positive about the potential from smartphone shoppers.

When speaking at a conference, the executive revealed considerable mobile commerce growth data.

According to Marcus, Sephora saw an increase in orders over mobile commerce of 167 percent. Moreover, there was a spike of 75 percent in the traffic that the site saw from smartphones and tablets. Furthermore, over 50 percent of the emails that are sent by the company are opened using these devices, as opposed to laptops and desktop computers.

Sephora has developed a unique mobile commerce strategy which is attempting to make the smartphone or tablet into a type of digital personal shopper for consumers. The devices will allow them to keep track of the brands that they prefer, read reviews, and keep an eye on the very latest items.

The company has also placed a considerable amount of focus on the concept of a mobile wallet which will integrate with the gift cards that they sell. Beyond that, there is a handy feature in the company’s app, which allows consumers to scan the barcodes on the packages in-store, or on the items that have already been purchased. This provides immediate access to product information, reviews, and options for purchasing that item online.

Of course, this was only one example of mobile commerce successes over the last year. A recent eMarketer study has indicated that this year, consumers will be using their devices to purchase $37.44 billion worth of retail products. This is a massive increase over last year, when $23.72 billion was spent.