Mobile commerce is taking off faster than predicted

Smartphone scanning QR codes

QR code

It’s especially gaining ground through QR code scanning in Europe

Though the expectations for mobile commerce have remained very high for the last few years, the growth had been failing to take off – until now.

The most recent figures measuring the success of the channel have shown that it has now managed to outpace even the most favorable forecasts and that it has officially reached the explosive rate that is worthy of the hype that it has been receiving.

The latest Portaltech and eDigitalResearch data has shown that a massive 64 percent of all smartphone owners are now using those devices to make purchases online. This is a quadrupling of the numbers since June 2010.

According to Mike Randazzo, an independent business analyst, mobile commerce is “an undeniable fact of life today.”

Randazzo explained that “People love to shop from their mobile devices, perhaps even more than these shoppers even realize. The smartphone is now a portable shopping cart. And this reality will only become more pronounced in the years to come.”

Websites are being browsed by a massive 84 percent of smartphone owners.

Among those who do, one in three do this every day. Research has shown that when those device users are not actually buying the products online with their mobile devices, they are often performing research about various products that they may purchase in the near future. Studies showed that 77 percent of smartphone owners are now using the devices for product research.

This data was published in a report, about which the head of research at eDigitalResearch, Derek Eccleston, said that the results are simply a confirmation that mobile commerce has entirely changed the way in which browsing and shopping is occurring. The growth of the use of smartphones is unprecedented and there have been astounding rates of change over the last two years.

The company’s prediction in June 2010 had been that smartphones would have a growing significance in the lifestyles of consumers while they’re on the go. Last year in the same month, they determined that those results were approaching at leaps and bounds. Now it is clear, said Eccleston, that mobile commerce is a vital channel for all brands and retailers.

This has been furthered by the extensive use of QR codes in mobile commerce, as a recent ComScore study showed that there are more than 14.2 million smartphone users in the top 5 European countries (France, Germany, Italy, Spain, and the United Kingdom), who scanned at least one quick response barcode within the first quarter of 2012.

 

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