• by Gavin O'Malley , Staff Writer @mp_gavin, February 13, 2017

The “m” in m-commerce doesn’t stand for massive. Yet, judging by the sharp growth in mobile shopping, it seems a suitable substitute.     

In the fourth quarter, in fact, m-commerce spending -- on smartphones and tablets -- reached $22.7 billion, which is a whopping 45% rise, year-over-year.

That’s according to fresh quarterly findings from comScore, which shows that mobile still has a way to go before catching desktop commerce.

During the quarter, consumers spent $86.6 billion on their home and work PCs -- up a more modest 13%, year-over-year.

Overall, mobile accounted for 21% of total digital commerce dollars in the fourth quarter of 2016, which marked mobile’s highest recorded share of online sales for a single quarter since comScore began measuring m-commerce back in 2010.

This mobile share of digital commerce dollars grew considerably from 17% a year ago -- and from a mere 4% during the same period in 2010.

Needless to say, smartphones and tablets have become increasingly important to online buying with every succeeding year, comScore points out.

Oh, and in case your calculator is broken, e-commerce across platforms reached $109.3 billion, last quarter -- up a more modest 18%, year-over-year.