Mobile Commerce Growth

Mobile Commerce (m-commerce) sales and M-Commerce spending reached $4.7 billion in Q2 2013 with a growth rate of 24 percent vs. a year ago according to a recent study by ComScore. For the first half of the year, m-commerce spending accounted for $10.6 billion, representing 10 percent of total digital commerce during that time. With the expected seasonal surge in Q4 spending, m-commerce could surpass $25 billion for the full year.

Marketing Charts

“While mobile devices are already extremely influential in the overall buying process, they are also beginning to drive a meaningful percentage of digital commerce,” said comScore chairman Gian Fulgoni. “One out of every ten consumer e-commerce dollars is now spent using either a smartphone or a tablet, and growth in this segment of the market is outpacing that of traditional e-commerce by a factor of 2x, which itself is growing at rates in the mid-teens. Any channel shift has the potential to be disruptive to established revenue streams, and it would appear that m-commerce spending has reached enough of a critical mass that key stakeholders must begin to address this new market dynamic today or risk losing competitive advantage.”

The report showed that M-Commerce spending for the first half of 2013 indicates that smartphones drove a considerably higher share (6.0 percent) of total digital commerce than tablets (3.5 percent). While smartphone users outnumber tablet users by a factor greater than 2x, the average spending per device owner is actually 20 percent higher on tablets. According to ComScore, the top-ranked product categories in total m-commerce sales for the first half of 2013 were Apparel & Accessories, Computer Hardware, and Event Tickets, while Video Games, Consoles & Accessories showed the highest percentage of digital commerce spending occurring via m-commerce (23.7 percent).

Mobile sales derived by Android phones have tripled in the past year and are growing faster than those of iPhone users, according to Internet Retailer. Android tops having more users than iOS. The Android platform currently has billions of users. There has been debate of iOS being more shopper friendly versus Android. Android is being seen as an advertising platform. With the rapid growth and market constantly evolving signs could become more clear.

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