Consumer expenditure increasing
Consumers are spending twice as much on mobile commerce as they were this time last year. A new report released by IMRG and Capgeminiclaims m-commerce accounted for 23.2% of online sales during Q2, up from 11.6% year on year as consumers become more confortable with spending on smartphones and tablets. The figures are even higher for browsing, with visits from mobile devices accounting for more than a third of the total visits to e-commerce sites during Q2, up from just over a fifth a year ago.
Is m-commerce improving results?
Yes and no. The report says bounce rates, which measure how often vistors come to a site without clicking through to any other pages, have actually risen over the past few years as mobile shopping becomes more prevalent. The study claims that in 2010, when 97% of all e-commerce transactions were carried out using a desktop computer, bounce rates were 21.7%. Since m-commerce has become more prevalent the bounce back rates have increased. In 2013 the bounce back rate has risen to 26%. Although this is down slightly from last year, overally the figures suggest that consumers may be using devices to browe or research e-commerce sites, rather than spending on them, before making the actual purchase on a desktop. Another reason could be that many retailers still have poor mobile sites or none at all.
Mobile changing shopping patterns
‘Click-and-collect’ services are also starting to gain traction and now account for a record high of 16% of online purchases. ‘Click-and-collect’ allows users to order online and then collect their purchases in-store. ‘Click-and-collect’ now accounts for 86% of Halfords’ online sales and was seen as a key contributor to New Look’s online sales 79% leap in online sales during Q2 of this year.
Whatever consumers are using them for, mobile shopping apps are proving increasingly popular with consumers. Nielsen claims commerce apps make up seven of the top 15 fastest-growing apps on Android. Unsurprisingly, Amazon’s Appstore came out as the fastest-growing app in the six months to October, with users spending an average of 15.23 minutes on the app per month, up 7.6 times in the period. Supermarket apps are also doing well on mobile, with Tesco named as the fourth fastest-growing commerce app during the period, while ASDA came in 12th place. Growth in this section illustrates the increasing willingness of consumers to shop on mobile, with many citing the convenience of browsing on smartphones for making purchases on the devices.
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