The age of brick and mortar stores is well and truly over. Retailers have learned the hard way with the fall of mighty retail titans such as Claire’s and Toys R’ Us. The ones left behind must now understand how changes to consumer behavior has led to the death of legacy chains, and learn from it. It is only then that they can understand where the retail industry as a whole is headed to and what it means for them. They need to understand that mobile commerce is the future, and gain a better understanding of the rise of mobile commerce.
Mobile Commerce is Here to Stay
It’s fair to say there has been a massive shift in shopping habits. Just 15 years ago consumers would shop at their local store. Now they have the option of shopping from anywhere in the world. They’ve got a ton of choice and so they flock towards brands with integrated omni-channel experiences. While some retailers are still attempting to build their online presence, let along taking steps to merge offline and online channels into a single omni experience, many customers are moving towards mobile and staying there. To get a better understanding of these changes, we’ll look at the numbers around mobile commerce.
Between 2016 and 2021, there will be a huge surge in ecommerce and mcommerce according to Signal-boosters.co.uk. Ecommerce sales were valued at around 1.8 trillion dollars in 2016, making up 8.6% of all retail sales. It’s expected that ecommerce will be worth over 4.8 trillion in 2021, accounting for 17.5% of all retail sales.
More in-depth analysis shows that mobile commerce is one of the main driving factors behind the growth increase. Mobile commerce reached almost $1 trillion and made up for 52.4% of ecommerce sales for 2016. This number is expected to rise to over $3.5 trillion by 2021, representing a total of 73% of all ecommerce sales in 2021.
According to an eMarketer report, the global markets with significant mobile spending are Japan, UK, USA, South Korea, and China. Consumers in China in particular are taking advantage of mobile payment solutions while making purchases, which is setting the pace for mobile commerce transactions.
Thanks to major names like WeChat and Alipay and mobile-first consumers, China alone represents over two-thirds (67.1%) of all mobile commerce sales in 2017. While mobile sales account for over 80% of online shopping, mobile purchases are expected to rise to 2.595 trillion dollars by 2021, up from the $909.93 billion for 2017.
Conclusion
With this research in mind, it’s all too obvious that mobile commerce is the fastest-growing commercial channel. This means that retailers should put money into mobile commerce for the sake of their business and to ensure future success. The winning retailers of tomorrow are going to be the ones that understand the changes happening to the industry today, and respond to them properly to secure a foothold. Mobile commerce is still on the rise, and is only going to become a bigger industry in the coming years.
