The findings indicate that the channel is booming and that retail purchases are skyrocketing.
According to mobile commerce research collected and published by eBay and PayPal, smartphones have generated approximately $5.6 billion in retail sales in Australia throughout 2012, so far.
This statistic illustrates a massive jump in the use of these devices for purchasing and shopping.
In 2010, at the same time, the retail sales over mobile commerce had reached only $155 million. This provides a very clear picture regarding the speed of the penetration of smartphone technology in Australia.
The report looked into the dramatic impact of mobile commerce on Australian consumers.
The mobile commerce research report was entitled “Secure Insight: Customer Discovery”. What it also found was that 47 percent of consumers in Australia were using their smartphones in order to conduct product research. Furthermore, 25 percent were using tablets for this same purpose, before actually making a purchase. Similarly, though, 92 percent continue to use their desktop computers to make online shopping decisions and to actually buy a product or service.
These figures from eBay have indicated that every two seconds, another mobile commerce purchase is made. When they compared the use of shoppers on smartphones with those on tablets, they found that it was the latter who spent more time browsing.
PayPal Australia’s vice president, Jeff Clementz, said that “The ritual of visiting shops, trying on clothes, and interacting with sales people is not dying, but how people get to your shop and what represents value and convenience – this is changing and technology is enabling it.” He went on to say that the study results are indicating that Australians are using the internet, on a growing basis, for getting their shopping experiences going, and then they proceed to make their purchase offline.
Clementz feels that this makes it “imperative for retailers” to create a mobile commerce presence that will help to provide consumers with the information and resources that they need along every step of their shopping journey. He said that “We believe the retailers that understand discovery and take time to understand their customers’ behaviors will enjoy the benefits.”