Mobile Is Rising Star Of The E-Commerce Show

An increasing percentage of shopping starts on a smartphone but later concludes on another device or offline. Yet despite this and its smaller-screen challenges, mobile commerce is far outpacing the rest of US retail and ecommerce in terms of growth.

According to recent figures from comScore, m-commerce grew 47 percent year-over-year, while overall ecommerce grew only 10 percent. It’s easier to grow from a smaller base but the data still reflect that mobile is taking center stage in consumer shopping.

ComScore says that mobile was 11.1 percent of total ecommerce in Q2, up from 8.6 percent in Q2 2012. Smartphones were responsible for 54 percent of transactions, while tablets drove 46 percent of mobile conversions in the quarter.

These comScore data stand in contrast to other recent data from Internet Retailer and ShopVisible. Internet Retailer projected that by the end of the year mobile devices will account for 21 percent of ecommerce sales globally. ShopVisible reported that smartphones and tablets were together generating about 18 percent of total ecommerce sales in the first half.

Late last year AOL said that 31 percent of online conversions across selected verticals occur on mobile devices, the large majority of which take place in the home and on tablets rather than smartphones.

While these data appear to conflict in significant ways, all point to the important role that mobile devices now play in online shopping and ecommerce. I’m moderating a session on mobile commerce at SMX East called “Trends & Tactics In Mobile Ecommerce.” We’ll be discussing best practices and some of the issues that keep marketers from fully leveraging mobile as a commerce platform.