There are many ways to gauge how and when mobile-driven commerce – m-commerce – will become truly mainstream and dominate the retail space (whether physically in real stores or through virtual worlds). One, of course is simple market share. A recent ABI Research report, for example, suggests m-commerce will represent about 24.4 percent of the overall e-commerce marketplace in terms of revenue generation by 2017.
ABI’s starting point for this overall measurement can be traced back to 2011, when m-commerce made its first serious impact on the overall market. In 2011 m-commerce doubled annual revenue to $65.6 billion, a significant leap at the time and one that made it clear what its future will be.
From a purely mobile perspective, this is obvious: there are no great revelations here…mobility is the still new and next wave of both enterprise and consumer technology, and will be for the next decade at least. All commerce revenue. Both e-commerce and in-store commerce – will be impacted in significant ways by the fairly steep projected mobile’s growth trajectory over the next decade.
In the almost five years that have passed since the first iPhone was introduced mobile technology has advanced at a phenomenal rate – the differences in what was possible even with the advances made through the original iPhone back in 2007 compared to what is possible today is substantial. Smartphones and tablets have become fully mainstream devices, and in the United States wireless bandwidth (even with its current and fairly low end 4G/LTE capabilities) capability has almost caught up with that of Japan and South Korea (where m-commerce is already ahead of the United States by a substantial margin).
Most important, there is now an unabashed enthusiasm from every age demographic for using mobile devices throughout the day, for both business and personal use. ABI’s mobile online commerce report makes this clear. The report found that m-commerce growth is directly fueled by the rapid adoption of smartphones in both mature and developing markets.
“M-commerce is not yet mass market, but it is delivering remarkable growth in tough economic conditions,” noted ABI Research practice director John Devlin. “There remain questions, as how to best realize the value and ROI of m-commerce but innovative retailers with the resources to invest in the development of their mobile portfolio have clearly identified this as the way forward.”
Retailers Get on Board
The global retail market itself is of course central to m-commerce growth. There is clear market evidence that points to traditional brick-and-mortar retailers moving to implement brad multi-channel strategies that include mobile applications and mobile Web access. Given mobile technology growth dynamics and the challenge retailers face through increased competition from Internet-based vendors, there is very little choice here – retailers must deliver mobile commerce capabilities.
ABI suggests that m-commerce is still a relatively small percentage of the overall e-commerce market, but its research also indicates that it is growing at a much faster rate. ABI says – and we fully concur - that a tipping point appeared in 2011 when retailers began to understand that they needed to deliver integrated multichannel capabilities that would eventually be directly anchored by m-commerce platforms, apps, and services.
A recent perspective we’ve offered on the likely growth of mobile payments – Visa Says Mobile Payments Won't Hit Mainstream for Two to Three Years – Will Google Now and Apple's Siri Prove Visa Wrong? – adds additional insights into why the ABI Research is on target, and why we believe that m-commerce is poised for explosive growth. Technology, the mobile customer and the retailer have reached a common point of intersection.
“Mobile is now transitioning from what was initially viewed by many as a retail experiment to a viable component of a full-blown multi-channel offering,” added Devlin. “This is further exacerbated by the need in the retail sector to a) differentiate from the competition, b) be seen to be offering value, and c) an enhanced need to increase consumer engagement and interaction. Mobile helps to fulfill all of these criteria.”
Consumers are able to use their mobile devices to purchase a range of physical and digital goods and to choose from a range of options as to how they pay for them. The introduction of HTML5, visual search, location-based services, NFC, augmented reality, full Internet browsing, “proximity retailing” (knowing when your customers and target audiences are in the vicinity of physical stores), and real-time bidirectional communication with and between mobile users, will play greatly increasingly roles in “show-rooming” and m-commerce viability.
We will add as well m-commerce inevitability.
Want to learn more about today’s powerful mobile ecosystem? Then be sure to attend the Mobility Tech Conference & Expo, collocated with ITEXPO West 2012 taking place Oct. 2-5 2012, in Austin, TX. Co-sponsored by TMC Partner Crossfire Media the Mobility Tech Conference & Expo provides unmatched networking opportunities and a robust conference program representing the mobile ecosystem. The conference not only brings together the best and brightest in the wireless industry, it actually spans the communications and technology industry. For more information on registering for the Mobility Tech Conference & Expo click here.
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Tony Rizzo has spent over 25 years in high tech publishing and joins MobilityTechzone after a stint as Editor in Chief of Mobile Enterprise Magazine, which followed a two year stretch on the mobile vendor side of the world. Tony also spent five years as the Director of Mobile Research for 451 Research. Before his jump into mobility Tony spent a year as a publishing consultant for CMP Media, and served as the Editor in Chief of Internet World, NetGuide and Network Computing. He was the founding Technical Editor of Microsoft Systems Journal.Edited by
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