New report shows that mobile shopping activity continues to rise throughout the US
Custora, an electronic marketing service provider, has released a new report concerning the factors that are driving mobile commerce activity in the U.S. Over the past four years, mobile payments have seen a dramatic rise, finding their way into various industries and with more people showing interest in mobile transactions. Mobile commerce has seen the majority of its growth occur in the retail industry, where retail sales from smartphones and tablets have reached $42 billion as of t he end of 2013.
E-mail is driving more activity than social media
There are many factors driving the growth of the mobile space, but e-mail is one of the most influential of these factors. One common consensus among businesses is that the best way to engage mobile consumers is through social media. While this is true to some extent, e-mail is still the best way to drive commerce activity among these consumers. According to Custora, e-mail drive 26.7% of sales on smartphones and 23.1% on tablets. By comparison, social media only drove 0.6% of sales on smartphones and 0.2% on tablets. E-mail remains one of the most powerful marketing tools available to businesses today, despite the fact that e-mail services do not have the same flare as social media platforms.
Consumers are beginning to favor tablets over smartphones
Custora’s data shows that consumers are becoming more willing to shop from their smartphones and tablets as well. Between January and March of this year, 12% of online shoppers made purchases from more than one mobile device. Shoppers are beginning to favor tablets over smartphones as well, due to the better shopping experience that these devices offer.
Smartphones may be the primary mobile commerce tool among online shoppers for some time
Currently, the iPad is the most popular tablet device for online shoppers, accounting for 79.9% of tablet commerce. Amazon’s Kindle Fire is gaining momentum, however, as more consumers begin to use their tablets to shop online. Overall, smartphones are likely to remain the primary mobile commerce tool among consumers.
Mobile commerce can be a tricky business, especially where retailers are concerned. The mobile space is alluring because of the number of consumers that use smartphones and tablets on a daily basis, but engaging these consumers can be difficult because of their fickle nature. How Spring will help brands connect with mobile consumers is uncertain. Other platforms have attempted to enable brands to connect with mobile consumers through various marketing endeavors and loyalty programs that have had varying degrees of success.