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.
New report shows that the demand for m-commerce platforms is growing quickly
Infiniti Research has released a new report concerning the state of the U.S. mobile commerce market. The report indicates that the U.S. has become one of the most active markets in the world when it comes to mobile commerce and the market is saturated with demand from consumers for new services and better mobile-centric platforms. Several businesses in the U.S. are beginning to take the mobile space more seriously and telecommunications companies are working on ways to make mobile commerce as a whole more accessible.
Handful of companies establish leadership in the US mobile market
According to the report, there are only a handful of organizations that can be considered dominant in the mobile commerce market. These organizations are Isis, PayPal, Visa, and Citibank. Square is also considered to be a leader in the North American market and the company is often credited with helping make mobile commerce more inclusive of iOS users. PayPal has also helped make mobile commerce more accessible to iOS users as these people do not typically have access to NFC technology, which is used for many mobile commerce platforms.
Mobile coupons succeed in boosting mobile sales for retailers
The report shows that retailers are beginning to engage with mobile consumers more aggressively than they have in the past. Many retailers are introducing mobile coupons as a way to encourage mobile engagement. These coupons are used to boost mobile sales and have been quite successful in this endeavor as the number of people that use mobile wallet applications continues to grow throughout the country.
Security continues to be one of the most serious problems there is in the mobile commerce space
The report notes that one of the major issues that consumers have with mobile commerce has to do with security. Many mobile commerce platforms have been targeted by hackers and malicious groups that are seeking to exploit a person’s financial information. Even businesses that are involving themselves in the mobile commerce space have found it difficult to provide consumers with a secure experience.
