1 in 5 online sales attributable to m-commerce by Christmas

Friday, September 7, 2012 - 11:08 by Graham Miller

A fifth of all purchases made via safe shopping online could originate from a mobile device by the end of the year, according to the latest figures from IMRG Capgemini.

As smartphone and tablet usage blossoms, so too does the number of people who are buying goods from these portable gadgets, rather than using their desktop or laptop computer.

In the second quarter of the year, m-commerce sales were up by 3.4 per cent, accounting for 11.6 per cent of the market as a whole. Just two years ago, m-commerce was accountable for just 0.4 per cent of the market, which means there has been a total increase of 2900 per cent between 2010 and 2012.

Retailers found that mobile users were visiting their sites in ever increasing numbers over the past three months, with 21.1 per cent of visits now made from a smartphone or tablet.

However, analysts admitted that the bounce rate is growing, which means that many people are simply surfing from their phone but not buying anything.

IMRG spokesperson, Tina Spooner, said that retailers were now having to accept that consumers are leading the market in safe shopping online and dictating its shape, as a result of their browsing habits.

She said that since customers have the ability to compare prices using their smartphones, they are becoming far more fickle and are less likely to commit to purchasing something on the first site they visit, which has led to the aforementioned bounce rate increases.

The current rate of m-commerce growth is predicted to continue, although it will be interesting to see whether 20 per cent of online sales really are made using a mobile device this Christmas, or whether this will turn out to be an overzealous estimation.