Online stores in APAC countries are scrambling to optimize for mobile to meet consumer expectations.
In response to the rapidly growing trend toward the use of mcommerce by consumers in the Asia Pacific region, retailers are moving quickly to be able to offer websites and apps that will allow those potential customers to make their purchases through their method of preference.
These consumers appear to be choosing their mobile devices over PCs at an increasing rate.
Web retailers in the area have hardly missed a beat, by making sure that they jump into mcommerce just as – or nearly as – quickly as the shoppers, themselves. According to a Euromonitor International senior analyst for retailing, Lamine Lahouasnia, the “phenomenal rise” of the adoption of smartphones within that region has driven online merchants to leap right into this channel at a rate that is far faster than companies in the Western world.
This mcommerce adoption includes the creation of a mobile friendly website and/or shopping apps.
These are being used to allow consumers to shop with greater effectiveness. Lahouasnia’s statements were supported by those of the PayPal Asia-Pacific director of corporate communications, Dickson Seow. Seow stated that consumers are using mcommerce for making more frequent purchases and they are increasing in value.
Seow went on to say that the data from PayPal has shown that the total mcommerce spending in Singapore, for instance, increased by a tremendous 660 percent from 2010 to 2011, bringin it from S$43 million (US$34 million) to S$328 million (US$259.4 million). He explained that this channel showed three quarters of the spending originated from smartphones, while the remaining quarter was from tablets.
PayPal had already predicted that Singapore’s mcommerce marketplace would expand by ten times by the year, 2015, when it feels that it will reach S$3.1 billion (US$2.4 billion).
This shift from shopping online using desktops and laptops to the use of smartphones and tablets has represented a considerable shift in the internet shopping ecosystem. Mcommerce is being seen as one of the largest changes that has been experienced in that environment since its creation, and this trend is only expected to continue over the upcoming years.
