• by Gavin O'Malley , Staff Writer @mp_gavin, January 14, 2016

Coming off a breakout holiday season, mcommerce is poised for a bang-up 2016. That’s according to a growing body of forecasts, including a new one from Bizrate Insights -- a unit of Connexity, the marketing services company formerly known to the world as Shopzilla.

Mobile Web site purchases will grow by as much as 68% from 2015 to 2016, while peak volume during the 2016 holiday season could reach levels as high as 42% of all online orders, it predicts.

Those percentages do not include in-app purchases, meaning that total mobile purchases will almost certainly roll in higher in 2016.

Given the increasing prominence of mobile, it is no longer enough to ensure that systems are functioning property. Rather, brands and platforms had better make sure that consumers are happy with whatever changes come down the pike, according to Hayley Silver, vice president at Bizrate Insights.

“It is unfortunately common for a new feature or user experience to operate as expected, but still manage to displease or confuse the customer,” Silver notes in the new report.

Meanwhile, although tablet purchases appear to be stagnating, iPads still play significant role in the broader mcommerce ecosystem.

In fact, when separating mobile Web site purchases in 2015 by OS and device, it turns out that orders placed on iPads still surpassed individual iPhone and Android phone volume through the year.

Data for Bizrate Insights’ study was collected from over 540 million online purchases from July 2013 through December 2015.