M-commerce quadruples in past two years

In the two years to June 2012, the number of people using their smartphone to shop online has quadrupled. Today, 64% of smartphone owners use their device to shop. Shopping through the mobile web has remained more popular than via mobile apps.

Furthermore, a whopping 84% of smartphone owners have used their device to browse websites with a third doing so on a daily basis. Over three-quarters (77%) use their smartphone to research products.

"The growth of mobile is completely unprecedented and the rate of change that we've tracked over the past two years is alarming. Back in June 2010, we predicted that smartphones were likely to play an increasingly significant part in consumer's busy lifestyles, and whilst in 2011 we found that great strides had been made towards this, these latest set of results demonstrate that this trend is now irreversible," said Derek Eccleston, Head of Research at eDigitalResearch.

"It is therefore essential that all retailers and brands make their mobile channels as accessible as possible to maximize the potential that m-commerce has to offer."

Looking to the future, the growth of mobile commerce shows little sign of slowing. eDigitalResearch found that 44% will use their smartphone more to browse the mobile web in the coming months and a third (31%) say they will buy more.

Recent research from the IAB Mobile Marketing Center for Excellence found that, far from being intrusive, most mobile shoppers (71%) welcome ads on their devices and viewed them as a personal invitation from brands.

Mobile ads were second only to convenience at encouraging consumers to shop on their devices, found the research. A quarter (24%) cited convenience as the main reason for using their mobile to shop while 22% said they were responding to a mobile ad.

Tags: consumer behavior, consumer insight, m-commerce, mobile shopping, mobile web, smartphone