Mobile e-commerce is approaching escape velocity as shoppers are discovering the advantages of one-click payments. As the following article describes, mobile tech-savvy merchants are rapidly meeting the needs and preferences of smartphone-toting consumers.
Millions of consumers are using their phones to shop instead of lining up at stores after chowing down on turkey this year, accelerating a fundamental change in holiday shopping as more consumers spend online. Better mobile e-commerce sites and easy one-click payment options—as well as earlier deals—are making the 24 hours that started Thursday evening the biggest online spending period of the year, according to retail experts. The period is expected to eclipse Cyber Monday, the first Monday after Thanksgiving, and give brick-and-mortar stores new competition for Black Friday.
Software company Adobe Systems Inc. reports that online sales as of 5 p.m. Thursday grew 17% to $1.52 billion, while traffic from smartphones increased 15% year-over-year. Consumers last year spent 19% more online on Black Friday than on Cyber Monday, according to Salesforce.com Inc.’s Commerce Cloud, which analyzes data from 500 million shoppers world-wide across more than 2,750 retail sites. Salesforce expects the pattern to repeat again this year. Over Thanksgiving weekend last year, an estimated 109 million people shopped online, compared with 99 million in stores, according to a National Retail Federation survey.
The ease of shopping on phones has helped push that trend, prompting consumers who previously just researched deals online to actually click the buy button, said Rob Garf, vice president of industry strategy and insights at Salesforce, which works with companies including L’Oréal SE, Adidas AG and PetSmart Inc. Mobile devices have helped “equal the playing field as technology caught up with demand.”
Mobile shopping for goods and services has not typically been a smooth experience for consumers. But in the last year or so, payments providers and e-commerce retailers have streamlined the mobile shopping experience that has helped reduce checkout abandonment and boosted mobile e-commerce sales. This mobile tech advancement will not be stopped. Just as consumers now flock to on-demand services and mobile ahead food ordering that provides seamless payments, shoppers are finding the same convenience when buying electronics or household items. Doubling down on mobile shopping convenience is the coming of contextual commerce that will enable retailers to directly engage consumers and give them reasons to shop in person as well.
Overview by Raymond Pucci, Associate Director, Research Services at Mercator Advisory Group
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