Tag: retail mobile commerce

Study highlights a paradigm shift in the mobile commerce space

A new study from Forrester Research, Shop.org, and Bizrate Insights shows that smartphones are beginning to become powerful mobile commerce tools. The study has found that consumers are beginning to change the way they browse for products online while using their mobile devices. This, alongside a shift in investments coming from technology companies and better optimization strategies from retailers, is beginning to have a major impact on the mobile commerce space as a whole.

Retailers are seeing more activity come from smartphones rather than tablets

The study found that, among retailers, smartphones accounted for approximately 17% of all online sales made in 2015. By comparison, tablets comprised 14% of online sales last year. Sales via smartphones grew by 53% over what they had been in 2014, with sales from tablets seeing a modest 32% growth in 2014. Retailers are beginning to optimize their mobile engagement strategies, which has lead to a higher number of smartphone users to participate in mobile commerce.

Technology companies are beginning to change the way they invest in the mobile sector

The study also found that there is a shift occurring in the investments that technology companies are making in the mobile space. A growing number of these companies are beginning to focus more heavily on mobile commerce, hoping to take advantage of the rapidly growing market. Companies like Apple and Google are bringing their own mobile payments services to new markets and retailers are beginning to follow suit. Technology companies are seeing major promise in the continued growth of the mobile commerce market are investing to ensure its continued expansion.

Retailers begin to focus more heavily on smartphones

Tablets had been a very popular mobile shopper platform for consumers in the past. These devices feature larger screens, which allowed for a more enjoyable shopping experience. Smartphones are becoming more popular among consumers, however, as these devices tend to be more common and more convenient shopping experience. Organizations involved in the mobile commerce space may soon focus more heavily on smartphones than other mobile devices in order to effectively engage consumers.

A recent forecast showed that it would reach $284 billion and 45 percent of e-shopping spending by 2020.

At the moment, consumers are using mobile commerce more than ever before to help to find products, read reviews and locate those items at brick and mortar retail locations.

That said, the current trend doesn’t show that the majority of consumers are making purchases over smartphones.

According to predictions that have been made about mobile commerce use throughout 2016, it doesn’t look as though there will be a massive change in smartphone shopping apps toward any that will be greatly superior to the current offerings. Still, m-commerce is expected to continue to represent a growing proportion of overall online spending over time. According to a new report, that will start to become quite meaningful by the year 2020.

In 2014, mobile commerce made up only 12 percent of all online sales in the United States.

The total online spending last year had been $303 billion in the U.S. That said, according to the BI Intelligence Mobile Checkout Report, by 2020, that figure will be considerably greater. Consumers will be spending an estimated $632 billion online and 45 percent of that will have been through mobile channels.

While American adults do spent a notably larger amount of their screen time using mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets, when it comes to their actual spending, desktops and laptops are still the gadgets of choice. Moreover, digital commerce is growing at a rate that is larger than that of in-store retail. Retail sales grew by 2 percent year over year, but digital commerce rose by 15 percent, said data from the U.S. Department of Commerce.

While smartphone shopping has been growing in its importance, it is e-commerce as a whole that has had the largest impact on total retail sales. That said, the BI Intelligence report showed that between now and 2020, there will be a notable shift as mobile commerce starts to play a much more meaningful role in e-commerce sales. It is estimated that 2015’s total for mobile shopping is $55 billion (16 percent of total online shopping), by 2020 the same figure will be 45 percent of the total, at $248 billion.