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M-commerce to constitute a fifth of online purchases in 2014

Tuesday, April 15, 2014 - 13:06 by Paul Tissington

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Almost a fifth of all the cash spent online by British consumers this year will be generated by m-commerce transactions, according to a new report from the Centre of Retail Research.

This is the latest piece of expert industry analysis, which shows just how much the market for shopping online is going to be influenced by mobiles and tablets in 2014, equating to roughly £8 billion worth of transactions in total for the year.

Close to a third of people already make purchases from their portable devices, but ongoing growth in smartphone usage means that even more sales are likely to be secured through this platform.

In 2013, by comparison, about £4.9 billion was spent from a mobile or tablet device, which was almost a tenth of the total for Europe as a whole.

Across the continent analysts expect that m-commerce will be up by 85 per cent this year, contrasted against the nine per cent overall rise in safe shopping online across all platforms.

There is significant evidence that shows just how important mobile shopping has become, both in the UK and internationally. In fact, British consumers are regularly cited as being ahead of the curve in their eagerness to adopt m-commerce, in spite of the fact that not all retailers have yet embraced the growing hordes of mobile shoppers.

What remains to be seen is how long m-commerce can sustain this level of growth, and whether spending is increasing across the board as a result of mobile use, or if people who were already buying items from the web via a desktop PC are now shifting over to their smartphones.

The convenience, speed and security of mobile sites and apps will doubtlessly determine how many consumers are willing to make m-commerce their go-to retail platform.