U.S. M-Commerce Sales To Hit $57.8 Billion In 2014

Mobile is a fast-growing but still a small part of overall U.S. retail sales.

A new eMarketer industry forecast projects retail m-commerce will increase 37.2% to $57.8 billion this year from $42.1 billion in 2013, and reach $132.7 billion in 2018. This year, it will make up about one-fifth of all retail e-commerce but just 1.2% of total retail sales.

The m-commerce estimate includes products or services ordered using the Internet via mobile devices and excludes travel and event ticket sales. This year, tablets will account for nearly two-thirds of m-commerce sales, increasing to nearly 75% by 2018. That underscores previous research from various sources indicating tablets are the mobile device of choice for making purchases.

The study predicts e-commerce sales will grow 15.5% this year to $304.1 billion, up from $263.3 billion in 2013. Growth in Internet-based sales will represent more than 20% of the total increase in retail sales this year. But it will still make up only 5.8% of total U.S. retail sales of 4.7 trillion in 2014. That share will rise to almost 9% in 2018.

In its first-ever benchmark of total retail and retail store sales—based on an analysis of 169 data points from 47 research firms and government agencies—eMarketer estimated overall U.S. sales grew 16.9% to $4.5 trillion in 2013. It projects that figure will increase annually about 4% in the coming years to $5.5 trillion in 2018.

"Online shopping" photo from Shutterstock.

1 comment about "U.S. M-Commerce Sales To Hit $57.8 Billion In 2014".
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  1. Lauren Hand from GPShopper, April 15, 2014 at 10:44 a.m.

    Nice article, Mark. These are great numbers for retailers. What shouldn't be overlooked is that mobile is actually changing the face of in-store shopping. So while m-commerce may be a small percentage of overall retail sales, this is because mobile - when done well - actually drives brick-and-mortar revenue. Mobile apps are increasingly used for research before and during a consumer's shopping trip.

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