Mobile now accounts for more than 30% of e-commerce transactions globally, and Asia-Pacific has a high potential for further growth in mobile e-commerce, according to Citreo.
The company's Q4 2014 State of Mobile Commerce Report suggests that mobile commerce is far more ubiquitous than the conventional wisdom assumes.
“There has been a significant lack of information about mobile commerce, leading many marketers to under-estimate the opportunity,” said Jonathan Wolf, Chief Product Officer at Criteo.
“Our report demonstrates that mobile is now about purchasing not just researching, and that there are huge opportunities for e-commerce businesses to capture increasing sales via mobile devices, particularly in the retail and travel industries. For Asia, we expect mobile to cross 50% of all online transactions in 2015, as mobile usage continues to skyrocket and retailers better optimize mobile sites for conversion.”
The report highlights that mobile is now about purchasing, not just researching. Global mobile conversion rates are high, across all devices and retail categories.
Smartphones now generate more transactions than tablets. Asia leads the way in smartphone purchases with close to 45% of e-commerce transactions happening on smartphones, but very little purchasing is being conducted on tablets.
Japan and South Korea are advanced markets for mobile shopping with over 45% of online retail transactions coming via mobile devices. In fact, Japanese e-commerce sites have mobile conversion rates that double the US, and in 2015, Japan and South Korea are projected to generate more than 50% of their e-commerce transactions from mobile.
A third of fashion transactions now come from mobile, with average order values close to desktop levels.
It’s not just Apple
Android phones generate over a third of smartphone transactions in the and some markets. In the US, Android devices now account for 39% and 44% of smartphone transactions for retail and travel purchases respectively. Android’s share of smartphone transactions is also greater than one-third in Japan (43% for both retail and travel) and South Korea (86% for retail, 74% for travel).
Top quartile retailers in Japan and South Korea generate over 65% of their e-commerce transactions from mobile, against the average of around 45% overall. The bottom quartile sees only around 14% of transactions from mobile. This represents over 4X difference in share of mobile transactions, demonstrating that retailers overlooking mobile are losing sales.
“Consumers are more comfortable than ever making purchases from mobile devices, which makes it increasingly vital for advertisers to effectively reach them across devices,” said Wolf. “If you’re an e-commerce player and you’re not focusing on allowing mobile audiences to purchase from you, then you may not be in business in a couple of years.”