Last week, the massive online marketplace released a television set box that allows consumers to stream video.
Although the obvious purpose of the set box gadget that Amazon has recently released would be to give users the opportunity to stream video on their high-def televisions, there are many that are suggesting that this is only a first step before integrating a tablet commerce experience into the mix.
The Amazon Fire TV provided an affordable device that comes with a number of advanced features.
This gadget currently retails for $99 and while it is similar to Chromecast and Roku in that it allows high-def TVs to stream video from the internet, it also leaps ahead of them with its advanced features which include an optional game controller for an additional $39.99 and a voice enabled remote control. This places the device on a level that would make it more competitive with the likes of products such as Apple TV. At the same time, though, many are speculating that this is a first step toward tablet commerce shopping in a multi screen experience.
Integrating with television could be a direct path toward boosting tablet commerce shopping at home.
As was the case in the release of the Kindle Fire, Amazon’s highly popular and yet still quite affordable tablet, the new Fire TV is not a product that is meant to ensure that the online marketplace is a top player in the hardware sector. Instead, it is a matter of delivering digital content to consumers; a direct path to providing yet another opportunity to shop online.
Amazon has made an effective strategy out of providing consumers with exactly the devices and opportunities that they need in order to be able to shop for products, no matter where they are, when it is, or what they want. Now, it looks as though they are bringing mobile commerce directly to the television set.
This will not only help to skip the very small screen step of shopping on smartphones, but it will also enhance the inclination to pick up the more user-friendly larger mobile device to give tablet commerce a notable boost.
This year is helping to prove that smartphone shopping is growing quickly, but is still a fraction of the whole.
A new industry forecast has been released by eMarketer with regards to retail mobile commerce and its predictions that this channel for shopping will grow in size by 37.2 percent, to reach $57.8 billion, when compared to having been $42.1 billion last year.
The projections also showed that they expect mcommerce to reach $132.7 billion by the close of 2018.
In 2014, mobile commerce in the United States will make up about one fifth of all retail online shopping in the country. However, at the same time it will make up only 1.2 percent of the total retail sales. Therefore, while the report from eMarketer does show that while this channel is having a growing impact on the sales that are occurring on the internet, when it comes to the actual sales made as a whole, it still represents only a tiny sliver.
Included in this mobile commerce estimate are products and services ordered online on a smartphone or tablet.
That said, it does not include the purchase of travel reservations or event tickets in these statistics. In 2014, the report predicts that tablet commerce will make up nearly two out of every three mobile based sales. This is also expected to rise to account for 75 percent of the sales over these devices by 2018. This aligns with the predictions that have been made by previous studies from a range of different sources, which indicated that tablets are the preferred shopping device of mobile consumers when it comes to actually making a purchase.
The mobile commerce research has predicted that sales online (over mobile or PC) will increase by 15.5 percent, this year, to bring them to $304.1 billion. This is an increase over last year’s $263.3 billion. Growth in sales online will make up more than 20 percent of the total retail sales increases in 2014, said the repot. However, at the same time, it also indicated that it will make up only 5.8 percent of the American retail sales total of $4.7 trillion for this year. That figure should grow by nearly 9 percent by 2018.
