If you were wondering when talk of mcommerce would turn in to mobile pounds and dollars flowing into your virtual cash register, the answer is that it probably already is. The latest figures from
eMarketer show that nearly 60% of British adults will make purchase on a smartphone this year.
This proportion is set to rise to nearly two in three adults by 2021. To get an idea of the
growth exhibited here, the proportion of people who purchased on a mobile phone tipped just above 50% in 2015. So we're seeing an increase from one in two in 2015 to two in three by 2021.
Looking at the figures show huge growth in the value of the public becoming increasingly comfortable with shopping through their smartphone. This year eMarketer expects just over GBP16bn to be
spent through smartphones or roughly just under half of all mobile retail sales, with nearly all of the remainder coming from tablets.
Last year the value of mobile retail purchases grew by
66%, and this year eMarketer is predicting growth of 45%. To put that into perspective, it means smartphone commerce is growing at three times the rate of general ecommerce.
All this means we
have a tipping point predicted for 2021, when mcommerce will account for 51% of all ecommerce sales. Until then, -- as you would imagine -- we have huge growth in smartphone commerce as it catches up
with, and in 2019 overtakes, a sofa shopper's favourite device: the tablet.
If this doesn't mean that today is a good time to take a look at your mobile site and app to question whether
you're fit for this challenge, I don't know what would.
It will come as no surprise to hear that for me, Amazon is way ahead of the game here. It knows me, it recognises me, and I can log on
and approve payments with a simple thumb print. No need to remember log in details or customer reference data (airlines, travel and hire car companies, I'm looking at you right now).
Retailers who take the risk of storing customer payment details will undoubtedly be best placed to thrive in mobile commerce because nobody wants to go through the hurdle of logging on and then
reminding a brand of their payment details. Failing that, a good integration with PayPal seems an obvious way forward for smaller retailers who are understandably nervous about hosting card details as
well as for larger retailers who want to offer customers choice.
Overall, the simple truth is that it needs to be simple. If you have to squint at small text on the small screen, input email
addresses and passwords, cut and paste references or reach for your wallet, again, to type out your credit card details, again, then it's pretty obvious that customers will simply migrate to an app or
mobile Web site that serves them better.
Log in with a thumb print, couple of index finger presses to find the right offer that is paid for by another thumb print. That's where the bar
is raised to for brands that want to cash in on an mcommerce bonanza.