Research released by Internet Retailer has shown that smartphone based shopping is rapidly gaining popularity.
It is no mystery that making sure that a store has an online presence – especially one in which products can be researched (or, even better, purchased) – is an important element in improving a retailer’s successes, but recent research is also showing that mobile commerce needs to play a bigger role in this effort, as consumers are looking to their smartphones and tablets on an increasing basis when it comes to finding the products and services that they want to buy.
A recent study involving the data from 366 American retailers has shown that m-commerce sales will be up 74 percent.
The study was conducted by Internet Retailer, which looked at U.S. retailers and their mobile commerce strategies. This was published in the 2015 Mobile 500. What it determined was that this year’s sales over smartphones and tablets would reach $59 billion, which is an increase of 74 percent over the $34 billion in sales that was achieved last year. Moreover, it also predicts that sales over smartphones and tablets will make up 23 percent of the online sales total for this year in the United States.
This shows that the pace of mobile commerce is growing faster than that of online shopping, overall.
In the second quarter of this year, the online retail sales – including purchases made over desktop computers, laptops, and mobile devices – rose by 15.7 percent, said the Commerce Department. While this is certainly a solid rate of growth, it is also very clear that it is much lower than the increases being seen in m-commerce sales.
The two companies that achieved the highest mobile sales so far in 2014, with a combined $30.8 billion, are Amazon.com (in first place) and Apple (in second place). Those two companies, alone, hold a 47 percent share of the Mobile 500 smartphone and tablet based sales total.
That said, the report also acknowledged that mobile commerce as a market is nowhere near mature and there is still a great deal of room for growth among existing players as well as among new entrants.
FTC report finds that many mobile applications are falling short
The U.S. Federal Trade Commission has released a new report focused on the mobile commerce space. According to the report, mobile commerce applications lack the mechanisms necessary to resolve payment disputes coming from those that use them. These application may also be unable to adequately protect their user’s privacy. These are issues that have often been points of criticism in the mobile shopping realm, but relatively little has been done to resolve the problems associated with these issues.
Report shows that apps are not providing consumers with the information that they need
The report from the Federal Trade Commission outlines significant shortcomings in the disclosures that applications offered to consumers regarding rights and certain liability limitations. Many of these applications were very ambiguous in detailing what consumer information is accessed and how this information is being used. These apps also lacked effective anti-fraud mechanisms, which may be putting consumer financial information at risk.
Apps are playing a larger role in the digital shopping experience
Mobile applications are beginning to play a more central role in the shopping experience. Consumers are beginning to use apps to find and purchase products that they are interested in, but some of these apps are unable to provide an effective service to these people. In some cases, these applications fail completely in processing a payment, leaving payment information in a state of limbo and frustrating consumers.
Mobile commerce is beginning to see more regulatory attention in the U.S. and other parts of the world
As mobile commerce continues to grow more popular, it will fall under more aggressive regulatory scrutiny. The mobile payments space is still in a state of infancy and, as such, may not have appropriate measures in place to protect consumers and their financial information. Services that do not offer adequate protection or properly inform consumers about payment dispute resolutions and information collection may find it difficult to find long lasting success. With competition in the mobile commerce market as aggressive as it is currently, few platforms can afford to alienate consumers.
