The Rise and Rise of Mobile Commerce: Why you will be ‘Showrooming’ this Xmas

The UK Overview:
 According to Econsultancy’s 2012 Online Shopping Survey, in December 2012, 24% of UK consumers used a mobile device for Christmas shopping. The agency polled 1,000 UK and 1,000 US online consumers on their shopping tendencies. According to the data collated, 11% of UK participants used a smartphone and 13% used a tablet (e.g. ipad) in comparison to 77% who shopped using a desktop. 21% of UK participants researched their prospective purchases on their mobile over Xmas. The term commonly used to describe this activity amongst marketing bods is ‘showrooming’.
 

 
Global Mobile Commerce
 
 The rise in Mobile commerce within the UK is only a reflection of the rest of the world.
Here’s a few US stats According to BI Intelligence:

• 54% of U.S. adults own smartphones and circa 25% own tablets.
• A disproportionate share of mobile traffic to e-commerce websites comes from tablets. Tablets account for well over 40% of mobile traffic to e-commerce sites with only a 25% penetration rate.

 
The Techy Teens:
 
As ever, the youth of today are ahead of us boring adults and here are some sizzling stats to dispel any mobile commerce angst!

• The average ‘on trend’ 12-17 year old use their smartphone as their primary internet access device (roughly 50%).

For cool, and technically savvy techy teens, mobile commerce is habitual and less of a novelty than for ‘the olds’.
  

 
The Future
It’s indisputable that there has been a meteoric rise in Mobile commerce in the past few years and the predictions for growth in this area are anything but fantastical.
Here are few predictions from BI Intelligence about what lies ahead:

•  In approximately 3 years, the ownership of tablets will overtake the number of PCs.

• By 2016, about 450 million tablets will be sold annually worldwide.

Be prepared for this term to become a part of mainstream shopping vocabulary in the run up to Xmas 2013!
Have you considered your Mobile SEO strategy for your website?
Are you ready for the year ahead?!
 
We are!! Watch out for our follow up post::  5 Top Mobile SEO Practices
 
Image courtesy of watcharakun at FreeDigitalPhotos.net
 
Further References:

• https://www.businessinsider.com/mobile-commerce-continues-to-rise-2013-7
• https://econsultancy.com/uk/blog/61925-50-fascinating-stats-about-mobile-commerce-in-the-uk
• https://www.newmediatrendwatch.com/markets-by-country/17-usa/855-mobile-devices
• https://www.smartinsights.com/mobile-marketing/mobile-marketing-analytics/mobile-marketing-statistics/
• https://www.businessinsider.com/bii-report-why-mobile-commerce-is-set-to-explode-2013-1
• https://www.businessinsider.com/blackboard/google-wallet
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Wallet
• https://www.businessinsider.com/blackboard/square
• https://www.iresearchchina.com/views/4927.html
• https://mobithinking.com/mobile-marketing-tools/latest-mobile-stats