A recent report has indicated that the rise that the channel is experiencing shows no indications of having slowed.
B.I. intelligence has just released a report that shows that the massive increases seen in mobile commerce over the last several quarters are still headed in the same rapidly upward direction.
The company reported that in 2010, smartphone and tablet shopping made up only 3 percent of online purchases.
However, since that time, and with the massive penetration of smartphones and tablets throughout the American population, that number has been steadily – and rapidly – climbing. By the close of the holiday shopping season in 2012, mobile commerce had already nearly quadrupled its share of the online shopping market, reaching 11 percent.
Mobile commerce is only expected to continue climbing as more of the population buys smartphones.
By the end of the holiday shopping season, there were $18.6 billion being spent by consumers over mobile commerce, not including purchases made in the travel industry. By the end of this year, B.I. Intelligence has predicted that the amount of retail shopping that will be generated over smartphones and tablets could reach 15 percent.
The research firm gave a number of reasons that mobile commerce will continue its rapid increases:
• At the moment, about 25 percent of Americans own tablets and about 54 percent own smartphones. In about three years from now, the number of tablet owners will be greater than the number of people who own PCs. It is estimated that in that year, there will be 450 million tablets sold every year around the world.
• Though tablets have only a 25 percent penetration rate, they made up over 40 percent of the mobile traffic to online shopping websites.
• Nearly half of all smartphone owners between the ages of 12 and 17 years, that device is their main source of internet access. Therefore, younger consumers have a greater exposure to mobile commerce and will build more habits around that device, making it a natural part of the shopping experience instead of a novelty or added convenience.
• Mobile commerce is building online shopping revenues incrementally which would not have occurred without these new devices.
