Tag: mcommerce study

Intela study shows mobile commerce is seeing strong acceptance among consumers

Consumers in the United Kingdom are becoming more comfortable with the prospect of purchasing goods with their mobile devices, according to new research from Intela, a leading performance marketing firm. The UK is one of the most auspicious markets for mobile commerce in the world, with many telecommunications companies and financial services firms working to engage mobile consumers in more dynamic ways. Retailers throughout the country have been embracing mobile payments, adding momentum to the growth of mobile commerce and helping make consumers more comfortable with participating in mobile commerce.

More than 50% of UK mobile consumers eager to make mobile payments

According to Intela, more than half of the UK’s mobile consumers are now comfortable with making mobile payments of $15 or more. The firm notes that the initial growth that mobile commerce had seen in the UK was due to the “iTunes effect,” the trend that saw consumers purchasing music and applications through their mobile devices. This trend helped consumers understand how mobile payments worked, and now these people are beginning to make purchases through platforms outside of iTunes as their options become more varied.

Investments in mobile commerce are growing

Intela notes that investments in mobile commerce coming from UK businesses rose significantly in 2012. Many of the businesses adopting mobile commerce have adopted a strong focus on educating consumers on how to participate in mobile payments. The firm notes that these efforts have paid off very well, with approximately 40% of UK consumers claiming they have a better understanding of how mobile commerce platforms work. Moreover, these consumers are very likely to make mobile purchases in the future for products they are interested in.

US consumers also show comfort with mobile payments

Intela’s study is not focused solely on the United Kingdom. The firm found that U.S. consumers are also growing more comfortable with the concept of mobile commerce. According to Intela, 56% of U.S. consumers are happy to spend more than $10 on mobile purchases. Nearly one in two of these consumers are very comfortable with mobile commerce platforms and how these platforms operate.

This would bring sales through the channel up to $31 billion within a 4 year period.

Forrester Research has released its latest mobile commerce data, which has shown that mobile commerce currently represents a small fraction of total sales for retail companies and for the next few years, it is likely that it will grow, but still remain a small percentage of the whole.

The sale of physical goods and services over smartphones was small but notable last year.

In the United States, these mobile commerce purchases were worth $8 billion and made up 3 percent of total online sales and under 1 percent of the overall retail sales total. Forrester estimates that this numbers were driven higher by some of the top performers in this channel, such as eBay and Amazon, which have experienced billions of dollars in sales from wireless devices.

For the majority of American retailers, mobile commerce sales represent a lower portion of the whole.

Over the next four years, the total mobile commerce sales are expected to increase by 33 percent per year – said the Forrester Research data – until they reach $31 billion. This means that by 2017, they will make up 9 percent of online sales.

According to that same research company, at the time of their study, there were 132 million people in the United States that had a smartphone with an internet connection. However, only one in every four actually made a mobile commerce purchase. They speculated that the reason that this rate has remained as low as it has is because of the retailers themselves.

Forrester has identified retailers as the cause of their own mobile commerce struggle, saying that it can be too challenging for consumers to check out and pay for items on their smartphones to make it feel worth their while. They also pointed out that some retailers are too wrapped up in apps of which consumers are completely unaware.

Aside from Forrester’s own speculations, it has also been suggested that the design of the smartphones, themselves, may be partly to blame. Although some screens have wonderful image zooming capabilities, it can still be quite challenging for device users to be able to closely examine products, especially within the apparel sector.