The world is poised for mobile commerce to change the way consumers shop for good, and for many, 2012 has been billed as the year that it finally lives up to its revenue-generating potential.
Rising demand from consumers, along with the continuing uptake of smartphone ownership, presents an unprecedented opportunity for innovative merchants to make the most of this new channel.
According to figures from eBay, the UK mobile payments market is expected to be worth £2.5bn by 2016, and worth up to £19bn to the UK economy in 2021. IMRG statistics show that in the second quarter of 2011, visits to eCommerce sites from mobile devices accounted for 7 per cent of overall traffic, up from an average of 1.4 per cent in Q1 2010. Retailer Debenhams recently revealed that 20 per cent of its online traffic was coming from mobile devices. Globally, Juniper Research forecasts that the mobile payments market will quadruple between now and 2017, to reach £829bn.
According to WorldPay’s Global Online Shopper report, 48 per cent of online shoppers in the UK own a smartphone, while 13 per cent own a tablet, and both groups demonstrate a propensity to buy via these devices. 29 per cent of UK consumers say they are likely to use these devices to buy online in the next year, while the majority of UK shoppers spend up to a quarter of their disposable income online.
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