Mobile makes up 21 pct. of online spending in Q4, as digital commerce reaches $109 billion

Full year US ecommerce spending numbers are out from comScore. In the holiday quarter, consumers spent $109.3 billion online, which was the highest figure on record. Mobile spending contributed $22.7 billion of the total.

Total ecommerce spending for the year was more than $354 billion. However, total retail spending was nearly $5 trillion in 2016, making ecommerce just under 8 percent. US government figures are somewhat higher for both overall online spending and ecommerce as a percentage of total retail.

Comparison of 2016 Desktop and Mobile Ecommerce ($ billions)

Source: comScore (2017)

In Q3 2016 mobile consumer spending was 20 percent of total ecommerce. In Q4 it was 21 percent, compared with 16.9 percent in 2015.

In 2010, mobile transactions contributed less than 4 percent of ecommerce spending. In the next few years mobile commerce should exceed 50 percent, just as mobile search has surpassed desktop search. Retailers and ecommerce sellers need to prepare right now for this inevitability.

The ecommerce vs. in-store sales story is now longer the whole story or the most interesting story. That’s because digital devices now influence about 60 percent of offline retail sales according to estimates from Deloitte. In 2015 more than $2 trillion of traditional retail sales were in one way or another impacted by digital.