People in the APAC region are considerably more likely to shop over smartphones and tablets than other parts of the world.
According to the results of a recent SAP survey, shoppers in the Asia Pacific region have a notably greater likelihood of using mobile commerce for shopping as well as for banking services online.
The survey also found that they would shop even more than they already do if they had higher mobile security confidence.
This recent survey data from SAP showed that among respondents in the Asia Pacific region, 37 percent had used their smartphones for mobile commerce behaviors such as for online banking. Comparatively, the global average was 29 percent for that same activity. An additional 37 percent said that they use their devices for shopping online . This is even higher than the global average, which is only 26 percent.
The most commonly purchased items over mobile commerce are books, e-books, and clothing.
The online mobile commerce survey included the participation of 3,288 people from China, Japan, India, and Australia. Each respondent was over the age of 18 and was a smartphone owner. For the global results, respondents included those from the United States, France, Germany, Brazil, and the United Kingdom.
The study revealed that 80 percent of the respondents within the APAC region were using their smartphones for paying a telecom or utility bill. This is tremendously higher than the global average, which was 50 percent. Another 63 percent used their smartphones for making bank transfers, compared to the 52 percent global average.
Nearly half of all of the respondents – 42 percent – from the Asia Pacific region said that they had used their smartphones for shopping over mobile commerce in order to purchase products and that they intend to continue that behavior. An additional 42 percent that had never conducted any kind of smartphone based transaction expressed interest in doing so within the future.
Security was revealed as a considerable issue holding back mobile commerce, as 54 percent of the respondents said that they would be interested in increasing the number of transactions that they make using their smartphones if they had greater confidence in the security.