Tag: mobile commerce 2013

A recent analysis has shown that different groups of people prefer different applications.

Onavo Insights has just released some of the results from a data analysis that it conducted on the use of mobile commerce and payments apps, which has helped to show how some of these digital products are doing, and who uses them the most.

There are already hundreds of millions of smartphones owned by Americans, but only a small percentage are used for mobile commerce.

Even fewer are used for payments. Mobile commerce is still primarily used for price comparisons as opposed to actually using the apps to purchase products or pay for goods while in store. This, despite massive efforts from industry giants that range from Google to PayPal, as well as telecom joint ventures like Isis.

As hard as these companies have been trying, mobile commerce and payments have yet to take off as seen in other nations.

According to the app usage data collected by Onavo Insights, from several million Android and iOS users, there are certain trends that are forming. The company published some of those findings in a report that has indicated that mobile commerce and payments apps and their platforms have been growing in the United States over the last twelve months, despite the fact that other countries – particularly in Asia – are seeing much larger growth levels.

Although the company does not claim that this provides a complete image of the mobile commerce situation in the country, it does help to provide a sense of how the apps are being used across the United States.

Among the notable findings about the mobile commerce apps includes the following:

• Starbucks is by far the clear leader when it comes to mobile commerce apps as it is used the most out of any payments app but it is also used for the free download of songs and apps, to locate shop locations and to view the menus at those cafes.
• As slow as the uptake may have been in the U.S., it is happening and millions of dollars in transactions are being completed through mobile payments apps. That said, among the estimated $500 million in transactions over mobile commerce apps last year in the United States, the “vast majority” occurred by way of the Starbucks offerings. This according to Berg Insights data.
• Venmo is starting to show a strong growth even though it remains a small product, as this mobile commerce app’s young audience doubled its use in June. Its primary use is in a much younger crowd, which is different from Starbucks and PayPal where the average age is 25 to 34.
• Men use mobile payments more as a whole, but the mobile commerce app at Starbucks was an exception, where women made up 54 percent of users. The lowest percentage of females was at Square Wallet, at 21 percent.

The report on an index has indicated that the sales over smartphones and tablets have massively risen.

The IMRG Capgemini eRetail Sales Index data has now been released and it has indicated that the growth that has been experienced over the last year in mobile commerce has been tremendous.

The data compared the sales that were made this June with those that were achieved in June 2012.

What the Index noted was that the sales over mobile commerce had increased by 136 percent this June in comparison to those from last year at the same time. The index as a whole had increased by 8 percent in May 2013.

The research also indicated that there was growth in the mobile commerce conversion rates.

What the data from the index showed was that mobile commerce conversion rates grew from having been 1.3 percent in June 2012, to this year’s much more promising 2.0 percent. This is a tremendous increase in the conversion rate and will be a meaningful one for people who are selling over the channel.

A great deal of the credit for the increase in mobile commerce conversion rates was handed to tablets, which are becoming increasingly popular and are used more frequently by online shoppers.

According to the Capgemini head of retail consulting and technology, Chris Webster, “The mCommerce Index remains strong as consumer confidence in purchasing goods and services via smartphones and tablets continue to grow.” He also went on to explain that “The findings provide further evidence of the value mobile technologies have brought to the retail sector as consumers continue to shop via this channel.”

This is a strong indication that retailers who are not placing a notable focus on mobile commerce would be advised to do so or risk falling behind their competition who are becoming more appealing and convenient to consumers who are using their smartphones for a growing number of purposes every day.

At the same time that mobile commerce was excelling, overall online retail sales also saw a massive year over year increase, with current levels being 20 percent higher than they were last year. This is the largest growth that has been recorded in two years. The monthly increase from May to June this year was 2.4 percent and represented the first time in five years that there was a growth between those two months.