Smartphone and tablet based shopping in the American market are rapidly taking off.
According to the latest statistics that have been released by Forrester Research, the sales generated over the m-commerce channel is expected to reach a total of $114 billion by the close of this year.
This will be greatly driven by the rapid rise of tablet ownership among American consumers.
The forecasts made by Forrester Research have predicted that consumers that shop over m-commerce will boost their purchases by $38 billion this year, with an additional $76 billion coming from tablet commerce – to reach the anticipated total of $114 billion. This is a notable rise over what had been predicted last year, when Forrester had believed that sales over smartphones would reach $24 billion and those over tablets would break the $48 billion mark.
It is believed that m-commerce is increasing at this rate due to the fast adoption of the devices.
The analyst from Forrester behind the report, Sucharita Mulpuru, has said that as consumers adopt smartphones and tablets more rapidly, they are also shopping over those devices at a greater rate. The comfort level that Americans have shown with respect to using their gadgets for shopping purposes is steadily on the grow. Moreover, merchants are working ever harder to improve the experience that they have to offer over this channel.
Equally, Mulpuru also pointed out that it remains only a minority of consumers who have these devices that actually use them for making purchases. She stated in the report that “In fact, we estimate that only 38% of smartphone owners and 31% of tablet owners will purchase on those devices in 2014.”
The report also added that they anticipate a growth of 55 percent in m-commerce, and a rise of 61 percent for shopping over tablets by the year 2018. By that year, Mulpur u has estimated that the sales over all mobile devices will have crossed the $293 billion mark. Comparatively, she stated that the total American ecommerce sales will have risen from having been $294 billion, this year to reach $414 billion by the end of the year 2018.
comScore report highlights the state of the mobile market and spending among consumers
Leading market research and analytics firm comScore has released its latest report concerning the performance of mobile commerce in the U.S. The report highlights the first quarter of 2014, showing that mobile shopping and spending has increased by a significant margin over what was recorded during the same period of the previous year. More consumers are beginning to rely on their mobile devices in their daily lives. As this trend becomes more prominent, commerce is becoming more digital.
Desktop e-commerce grew by 12% during the first quarter of this year
According to comScore’s report, desktop e-commerce rose by 12% year-over-year during the first quarter of this year. This represents the fourteenth consecutive quarter where double-digit growth has been recorded in this sector. Consumers appear to still favor the shopping experience they have using desktop computers and these platforms are likely to remain quite popular with consumers shopping online for the foreseeable future.
Mobile spending has slowed by a modest degree due to the passing holiday season
The report shows that mobile commerce spending has slowed down somewhat from what it had been during the fourth quarter of 2013. Typically, spending is usually highest among consumers during the holiday season, with spending slowing down significantly afterward. Notably, however, spending has only slowed by a modest amount, which means that consumers are still using their mobile devices to shop online relatively frequently. This is being considered a good sign, especially in light of the softening mobile market and the general wariness that consumers have about mobile payments.
Mobile activity likely to pick up at the end of the year
The most popular product categories among mobile shoppers during the first quarter of this year were apparel and accessories, consumer packaged goods, sports and fitness goods, and subscription-based digital content. Consumers are expected to continue participating in mobile commerce somewhat regularly as the year goes on. Mobile spending is expected to again accelerate as the holiday season approaches, especially now than retailers are planning to engage mobile consumers more aggressively than they have in the past.
