By 2020, smartphone and tablet using consumers will buy just as much as their desktop using counterparts.
It’s no mystery that mobile commerce shopping trends are on the rise, but a recent report by UPS predicts that by 2020, orders made over mobile device will represent half of all online purchasing. In fact, the forecast showed that m-commerce will make up about $250 billion in sales per year by then.
The UPS report indicated that most of the mobile sales will come from consumers using smartphones.
It also stated that the millennial generation will have a lot to do with driving this trend forward. As it is already estimated that two thirds of money currently being spent through mobile commerce shopping comes from millennials, it isn’t tough to believe this prediction. This study only adds to an ever growing mountain of research and forecasts suggesting that m-commerce is experiencing a growth rate considerably faster than that of desktop and brick-and-mortar.
Those other areas do continue to thrive, it is clear that mobile commerce shopping growth is experiencing the fastest rate.
At the moment, desktop and laptop based sales still continue to lead the way in terms of both numbers and value. However, the growth rates are such that this situation could change as early as three years from now.
Among the top driving forces of this m-commerce trend is the one-click checkout option. The reason is that it helps to eliminate one of the most tedious parts of the checkout process over mobile. The reason is that entering personal, shipping and payment details using a touchscreen keyboard takes a great deal of time and frequently results in errors that can cause the checkout process to fail. Therefore, one-click shipping eliminates the need for manually entering all that data.
Still, the value of mobile commerce shopping expands beyond the purchases actually made over the device. In many cases, consumers use their devices to research their purchases (product descriptions, reviews, store locations, inventory, etc) before buying the item in person or over a desktop computer. Therefore, the number of sales generated by smartphones and tablets isn’t necessarily limited to those in which the checkout process is completed through those devices.