Research shows many consumers in Asian countries enjoy m-commerce as a favorite pastime.
The APAC mobile shopping trends are moving more quickly than pretty much anywhere else in the world. Mobile commerce has become a regular part of everyday life in many of those countries. In fact, shopping via smartphone has become a favorite pastime for many people.
Some consumers within the region would even go so far as to say that m-commerce is indispensable.
This consumer sentiment toward m-commerce helps to explain why APAC mobile shopping is taking off at unprecedented rates this year. A new survey commissioned by PayPal showed that this surge is strong and continuing. This was the third annual PayPal-Ipsos Cross-Border survey report. It placed the spotlight on what shoppers are up to throughout the Asia Pacific country region and how they are spending their money.
The APAC mobile shopping report focused primarily on trends in India, China, Japan, Singapore and Thailand.
Among the key points in the mobile commerce report were the following projections for the rest of this year:
• India – Mobile spending will rise 46 percent year over year by the end of 2017. Total m-commerce spending will reach $45.76 billion out of a total online spend of $103.13 billion.
• China – The m-commerce spending in this massive marketplace will rise by 26 percent year over year to reach $186.86 billion out of a total online spend of $499.59 billion.
• Japan – Mobile commerce spending will get a 16 percent boost this year over last year, bringing it to a total mobile spend of $30.99 billion out of a total online spend of $104.3 billion.
• Singapore – Here, like in India, there will be a tremendous growth. In this case, it will be 42 percent greater than last year, for a total mobile spend of $857.82 million out of a total online spend of $2.5 billion.
• Thailand – Smartphone and tablet based shopping spending will increase 22 percent in this country when compared to 2016. This will bring it to $5.02 billion out of the total online spend of $10.91 billion.
Also interesting was the increase in cross border purchasing as a result of APAC mobile shopping in recent years.
