WebProNews

Tag: m-commerce

  • U.S. Desktop E-Commerce Spending Up 12% From Last Year

    U.S. Desktop E-Commerce Spending Up 12% From Last Year

    comScore put out new findings indicating that desktop-based e-commerce in the U.S. has grown 12% versus the same period last year.

    According to the firm’s estimates for Q1 2014 U.S. digital commerce sales, desktop e-commerce spending reached $56.1 billion during the quarter. That’s actually the eighteenth consecutive quarter of positive year-over-year growth and the fourteenth of double-digit growth.

    That’s not to say mobile commerce isn’t contributing significantly. M-commerce spending from smartphones and tablets added $7.3 billion for the quarter, growing by 23% versus a year ago. That brings the grand total for digital commerce spending in the U.S. to $63.4 billion for the quarter by comScore’s figures.

    “Q1 e-commerce and m-commerce spending growth have seen a modest acceleration versus the fourth quarter, which is a positive sign in light of overall softness in consumer discretionary spending across the broader U.S. economy during the early part of the year,” said comScore chairman emeritus Gian Fulgoni. “As we look ahead to the remainder of 2014, we hope that signs of improved consumer sentiment and a strengthening job market will help further bolster digital commerce. In addition, with several key consumer tech product upgrade cycles and new product introductions expected in the back of the year, there would appear to be continued momentum for the market throughout the year barring any unforeseen economic troubles.”

    According to comScore, the top-performing product categories were Apparel & Accessories, Consumer Packaged Goods, Sport & Fitness, Digital Content & Subscriptions, and Home & Garden. Each of these grew by 13%.

    Desktop e-commerce specifically accounted for 11.7% of consumers’ discretionary spending, which comScore says is the highest quarter on record.

    Image via comScore

  • PayPal Announces First Collaboration with Government Agency on Mobile Commerce

    Update:  When asked about PayPal pursuing other collaborations wtih government agencies, Anuj Nayar, the director of globalcommunications at PayPal, tells us:

    Our mobile strategy in Asia Pacific covers 5 areas:

    1. Provide consumers with a simple, fast, secure checkout experience on the mobile phone.

    2. Provide merchants with an easy integration of their online shopping site with the mobile phone.

    3. Partner with leading mobile ecosystem players to provide mass distribution for payment functionality in mobile services and apps.

    4. Enable the developer community to monetize their mobile services and apps through our Mobile Payment Libraries.

    5. Focus on key cross-boder/domestic m-commerce markets in Asia Pac including Japan, China, Australia, while experimenting in other markets where m-commerce is just taking off.

    As opportunities like the one with the IDA elsewhere in the world present themselves, we’d be happy to pursue them but we have nothing to announce right now.

    Original Article: PayPal announced today that it is collaborating with Singapore’s Infocomm Development Authority, a national government agency, to have PayPal’s mobile payment platform power the m-commerce infrastructure of Singapore’s Digital Concierge program. This is of particular significance because it marks the first collaboration between Paypal and a government agency on mobile payments.

    "In a nation with 138% mobile penetration and where 8 out of every 10 phones being bought are smartphones, Singapore possesses great potential for widespread adoption of mobile commerce as an increasing number of retailers want to use the mobile channel to extend their reach and consumers want easy-to-use, secure payment methods on their mobile phones," says VP of PayPal Asia Pacific, Farhad Irani.

    2010 has been a very big year for PayPal’s surge into mobile. At SXSW back in March, WebProNews spoke with Francesco Rovetta, director of business development for PayPal Mobile about this:

    "M-commerce is really taking off in this mobile-mad region as consumers increasingly shop on their mobile phones," says Irani. "We’re seeing many innovative ways, like our collaboration with Maxis in Malaysia, for businesses to address this regional market worth US$1.6 billion this year and expected to grow to US$12 billion in 2013 (according to ABI Research)."

    It will be interesting to see how many more government agencies go PayPal, and in different regions.

  • Smartphone Owners Frustrated By Poor Mobile Site Functionality

    Smartphone owners are more comfortable making purchases from their handsets, but poor mobile site functionality is still a frustration for many, according to a new survey by Compete. 

    While m-commerce is set for strong growth in 2010, consumers are still more likely to abandon mobile purchasing on sites that are not optimized for the on-the-go experience, similar to shopping cart abandonment in the early days of ecommerce.

    Compete’s Q3 Smartphone Intelligence survey found that eight percent of smartphone owners that tried to purchase a product on their device were unable to do so. Nearly half (45%) of those that abandoned the process said that they did so because the site would not load, and an additional 38 percent left the site because it was not developed specifically for smartphone users.

    "Retailers are beginning to recognize that smartphone use is no longer limited to an exclusive group of tech savvy consumers," said Danielle Nohe, director of consumer technologies for Compete.

    "As these devices proliferate – and people grow more comfortable transacting, site owners must redesign around mobile shopping ease-of-use. We see this as a win for both consumers and businesses."

    Smartphone-activities

    Key findings from the survey include:
       

     

    • 37 percent of smartphone owners have purchased something non-mobile with their handset in the past 6 months.
    •     19 percent of total smartphone owners have purchased music from their device, 14 percent have purchased books, DVDs, or video games and 12 percent have purchased movie tickets.
    •     The most popular mobile shopping-related activities are still research related – 41 percent of iPhone users and 43 percent of Android users are most likely to check sale prices at alternative locations from their mobile phones while they are shopping.
    •     The second most likely activity is accessing consumer reviews, with 39 percent of iPhone owners and 31 percent of Android owners investigating reviews from their handset before they purchase.

    Related Articles:

    >Google Launches Custom Search For Smartphones

    >Buy A Blackberry From Walmart Get A $100 Gift Card

    >Apple And LG Rank High In Consumer Satisfaction