Sales over that channel grew by 129 percent in July when compared to much lower desktop based performance.
According to the latest statistics that have been released on the IMRG Capgemini e-Retail Sales Index, last month, the sales over mobile commerce in the United Kingdom managed to grow by a phenomenal 129 percent when compared to the figures from the same time in 2012.
This data shows that the growth rate in smartphone based sales is far higher than that from desktops.
The rate of growth in sales seen by retailers over desktop and laptop computers, according to the data from the Index, was only 9 percent when July this year was compared to that of last year. The overall online retail sales growth, including both desktop and mobile commerce, saw its lowest increase since January 2010.
Mobile Commerce Report 2013This caused the overall Index to drop by two percent on June, despite the strong mobile commerce performance.
The drop that was experienced in the Index is the first time that there has been a monthly decrease in its thirteen year history. There have been a number of ideas that have been put forward to help to explain this sudden downward direction that has broken from the upward trend that has been continued for well over a decade.
According to the IMRG chief information officer, Tina Spooner, “There is no doubt that the prolonged heatwave had a detrimental effect for online retailers.” She also went on to point out that there is an interesting pattern that has been established with mobile commerce, despite the numbers that would seem more depressing overall.
Spooner explained that “It is interesting to note, however, that it is only desktop sales that appear to have been impacted; the mobile sales growth of 129 per cent is lower than in recent months but not significantly so, suggesting that consumers still shopped via their devices while bathing in the sun.”
The Index data also showed that in July, mobile commerce saw a strong conversion rate, which rose to 2.5 percent that month. This is also promising for the channel, as it means that people aren’t just learning about products using their devices, but they’re actually making purchases to a growing extent.
