Mobile Commerce / News
Mobile Commerce Forecast To Hit $US6.7 Billion By The End Of The Year
- 5th December
- Campbell Phillips 154
While purchases made from mobile devices make up only a fraction of all online sales, that fraction is growing rapidly – making m-commerce a hot topic for 2012.
A continued trend in smartphone adoption as well as growing mobile web use has seen a doubling in mobile commerce this year, expected to reach $US6.7 billion, according to a new eMarketer forecast. The market research firm has also predicted that m-commerce sales with grow another 73 per cent in 2012, reaching a total of $US11.6 billion.
The figures evaluated trends in the sales of both physical goods, travel and events purchased on mobile devices, but excluded purchases made from tablets.
“Mobile commerce is growing at a fast clip – and it’s acting as an engine of overall e-commerce growth, by converting potential brick-and-mortar sales to digital sales as consumers use their smartphones while shopping in-store,” says Jeffrey Grau, principal analyst at eMarketer.
Total online sales for this holiday season are predicted by comScore to reach $US37.6 billion, while Forrester predicts that only $US191 million will consist of m-commerce sales. However, the aggressive rate of growth m-commerce exhibits had made it a hot topic for any online retailer.
“For years, the trend has been for consumers to research products online, then go buy in-store,” says Grau. “But as the industry improves its slate of mobile offerings, consumers are increasingly visiting stores to research products, then go buy something else on their mobile devices.”
The challenge for traditional retailers is to develop their mobile presence to work alongside their bricks-and-mortar stores, encouraging customers to visit the real and virtual locations, perhaps going online to find more information or locate out-of-stock sizes and items.
29% of smartphone users will engage in m-commerce this year, increasing to 35% next year. In 2012, 72.8 million mobile users will research or browse items on their phone, but won’t purchase from the device.
