Tag: mobile commerce data

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.

The massive online marketplace is demonstrating a continuing upward momentum on smartphones and tablets.

Analysts are discovering that the mobile commerce performance of some of the original players in the smartphone and tablet shopping channels – such as eBay Inc. – are among the top performing locations and that they are now ready to continue the growth they have established.

It is also among these companies that the most established data is available regarding individual performance.

According to Michael Graham, an analyst from Canaccord Genuity, in a letter that went out to clients “E-commerce should continue to grow in the mid-teens as online shopping models become more useful, more efficient and more mobile, and eBay has positioned itself well against this opportunity.”

Analysts are bullish about the positioning that eBay has established in the mobile commerce environment.

Similar to Mr. Graham, Colin Gillis, an analyst from BGC Partners has identified the online marketplace as his top exposure to e-commerce pick for this year. He even issued a statement in the form of haiku that indicated his belief that mobile commerce could lead eBay’s value to one day exceed that of Amazon.

Graham also pointed out that from his company’s perspective, that “We believe eBay’s fundamental outlook is stable and could improve further over the course of 2013”. He explained that the gross merchandise volume (GMV) year over year from eBay has been consistently accelerating. This is because of a number of new and active users. He feels that a rapidly growing number of people are finding at eBay is useful, and that this is “likely driven by mobile”.

Gillis also took the opportunity to point out the value of mcommerce at eBay. In fact, he expressed that his company feels that the online auction site has “the strongest suite of offering for mobile commerce between its PayPal and its marketplace businesses.” He added that nearly one third of all purchases that are made at eBay are done from a smartphone or tablet device. Moreover, its estimates show that it will likely have processed more than $10 billion in mobile payments in the last year.