Increasing user friendliness and functionality have made it more appealing to smartphone and tablet users.
According to the new IMRG and Capgemini Quarterly Benchmarking Index, the first quarter of 2012 showed that the number of sales through mobile commerce continued to increase, but there was also growth in the bounce rates seen by websites accessed by smartphones and tablets.
The index showed that smartphone and tablet transactions have spiked by 2,000 percent in a span of two years, and are responsible for 8.2 percent of the overall online shopping that occurred within the first quarter of 2012.
Comparatively, in 2010, m-commerce made up only 0.4 percent of all online sales in the same quarter.
The concern that retailers are currently expressing, however, is that while this increased browsing is also leading to a boost in sales, the bounce rates are also on the rise. A bounce rate is a measure of the number of visits to a site where the visitor remains only on the single page and does not visit any other pages on that website before leaving.
This year, the bounce rate was 27 percent, having increased from 23 percent at the same time last year.
According to the IMRG chief information officer, Tina Spooner, many retailers feel that the competition is presenting a serious challenge within sector. At the same time, however, consumers are increasing their demands regarding the mobile commerce experience being offered by retailers and are becoming more difficult to please. It is becoming increasingly common for them to lose interest in a brand following a single glimpse of a website, which increases the bounce rates significantly.
This could be a response to the rapidly changing environment that is designed to help consumers to maintain a more friendly and engaging experience. For example, voice-enabled search is breaking out, having first been launched through the Siri service at Apple on the iPhone 4S, and which has now spread to EasyAsk, which is compatible with other smartphone operating systems.
This searching feature, which has been launched by Quiri, may also help to change the face of mobile commerce. It’s now up to retailers to keep up.
