Internet Retailer projects that by the end of the year mobile devices will account for 21 percent of e-commerce sales for the “500 leading retailers.” Globally, the publication says, mobile commerce will bring in nearly $84 billion in 2014.
The report also observes that responsive design continues to gain adoption, with more than 20 percent of leading retailers now having responsive sites. The document further estimates that about 42 percent of mobile sales will come from apps and roughly 58 percent from mobile websites this year.
It’s not surprising that more mobile commerce is coming from websites more than apps. In the retail category in particular, app penetration is fairly low. Other than Amazon or eBay, consumers don’t have many conventional retail apps on their phones, and most retailers to date have done a poor job of giving consumers reasons to download and retain them.
A separate report from ShopVisible, directionally confirms the 21 percent figure from Internet Retailer. The e-commerce platform provider says that while 38 percent of traffic to e-commerce sites comes from mobile devices roughly 19 percent of sales are mobile.
This gap represents a growth opportunity for mobile commerce that can be at least partly realized through better apps and mobile web user experiences.
The ShopVisible report finds that while tablet conversion rates are about 61 percent of those on the PC, mobile conversions are only about 22 percent of PC conversion rates. This is largely because of suboptimal mobile sites and apps.
Nonetheless, a considerable amount of shopping research happens on mobile but concludes on another device or in the real world. That also partly accounts for the lower mobile conversion rates.
Finally, a separate release of retail data from Fluent, reports that 68 percent of mobile transactions are driven by iOS devices and 32 percent by Android handsets and tablets.
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