U.S. companies still have yet to come close to reaching the full potential of mobile shopping.
New research has shown that even though m-commerce has received an enormous amount of hype, 41 percent of American shoppers have said that they’re not ready to use their tablets and smartphones for purchasing online products and services.
This equates to approximately 103 million people in the United States.
This could imply that there is nothing to m-commerce, but it is much more likely that there is huge potential for growth in this area. The research was performed by The BIO Agency, digital marketing experts. The report that they released on the topic showed that there remains a considerable opportunity for top retailers and brands in the United States to be able to encourage shoppers to use m-commerce and tablet channels for making their purchases.
At the same time, there are already 142 million Americans using m-commerce every month.
The average amount spent by these consumers is typically between $20 and $50. The research findings showed that the types of purchases that are most likely to be made over m-commerce channels include games, apps, e-books, and music, that is, downloadable entertainment products. At the same time, the products that are least likely to be purchased over mobile included gadgets, jewelry, food, fashion, and travel.
The report on the results underscored previously discovered trends, such as the use of m-commerce is commonly linked to an individual’s age. The age group that is most likely to use smartphones and tablets for making a purchase – or at least as a part of the overall decision making process – were between 18 and 24 years old. At the same time, the least likely age group included those who are over the age of 55 years.
Over one in four people in the 18 to 24 age group had already purchased at least one app on a tablet or smartphone. That same age group is also the demographic that buys the most entertainment products, including sports and event tickets. This was the only group that had made jewelry purchases over their handsets.
What this indicated to the researchers that published the report, was that m-commerce currently remains, primarily, an entertainment channel.
