Future of Mobile Commerce: Stats Trends for 2021 – Infographic (Updated)

Evolution in mobile technology has changed our lifestyle. We always find our smartphones near us. This habit has led to the evolution in the mobile commerce trends.

With the evolving mobile commerce trends, the consumer buying behaviour has significantly changed and mobile commerce will continue to prosper in future as well.

With the outbreak of pandemic, mobile commerce has seen a significant growth over a short span of time which we will discuss later in the article.

In this article, we will walk you through the latest trends, market share, consumer buying behaviours and forecast growth with regards to mobile commerce.

Let’s begin with discussing some of the trends forthcoming in the sales of mobile commerce.

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Latest sales trend in mobile commerce

• With more than 300 million smartphones owning population in the US, it should not be surprising to know that mobile commerce sales from smartphones are expected to grow to $432.24 billion in 2022.
• If we look at the past, the sales of mobile commerce from smartphones in 2018 was $148.08 billion which was nearly half of what it was in 2020 which was $ 268.21 billion.
• It is also expected that mobile commerce sales will reach $3.56 by the end of 2021. That is nearly a 22.3 percent increase from what it was in 2020 ($2.91 trillion).
• Comparing these figures with the figures in 2016 which were just $970 billion, we see that there is an astonishing growth of about 267 percent in just 5 years.
• With such an exorbitant growth in mobile commerce, more and more retailers are showing interest in developing their own apps for their business.
• Looking at the pandemic situation, the more people are found to be spending time on their phones which would drive the sales further for business commerce.
• As discussed earlier also, analysts have predicted that by the end of 2021, 53.9% of the total annual retail eCommerce sales in the US will be coming from mobile commerce which means that more than half of the US population will be spending their money on shopping from their mobile devices like tablets and smartphones.
• The prevalence of mobile commerce has grown so much in the market that according to the latest mobile commerce statistics report, more than half of consumers who claim that they shop every day rely on their mobile devices and specifically on their smartphones as compared to tablets, laptops, etc.
• This acceptance of mobile commerce is not only limited to daily shoppers but also to those consumers who shop rarely or once a year. Nearly 36% of them use their smartphones for shopping purposes.

Mobile commerce during the pandemic

The unprecedented shift to online shopping from in-store due to the outbreak of covid-19 has escalated the growth of mobile commerce. This situation has pushed consumers to shop from their mobile devices more often as compared to pre-covid times.

The younger generation is more inclined towards mobile shopping and they have played a crucial role in the rise of mobile commerce during these times.

Here are few surprising statistics about mobile commerce during the pandemic:

1. According to Forbes 2020, 80% of consumers claimed that they had shopped more often on their mobile devices since the outbreak of the pandemic.
2. Australia has seen 73% year-on-year growth since the pandemic.
3. In the US, 27% of consumers did shopping from their mobile devices.
4. Not only the habit, but also the perspective of the people has changed since the outbreak of covid-19 pandemic. According to a statistical report, 47% Australian consumers believe that more emphasis will be given to cashless shopping after the pandemic is over.

Top Mobile Commerce Markets

The growth of mobile commerce in developed countries is exorbitant. The level of technological advancement and the kind of adoption to the technological advancement has pumped the growth of mobile commerce in these developed countries:

• China: $750 billions
• US: $210 billions
• UK: $63.8 billions
• Japan: $34.5 billions
• South Korea: $28.8 billions

As far as the revenue generation is concerned, North America & European nations are predicted to be the biggest markets in the period 2021-2024.

Current position of Mobile Commerce market

The mCommerce market is expected to have good growth prospects with investments forthcoming due to increase in the usage of tablets, smartphones and various other mobile devices.

Due to the increase in the adoption of these mobile devices along with faster broadband speeds at cheaper cost, the internet usage has grown exponentially within a few years.

This has given a major push to the mCommerce market as more and more users have been added by the time.

Let’s look at some of the current mCommerce statistics:

1. According to a statistical report, 49% of worldwide consumers use smartphones for shopping purposes.

2. Around 61% of consumers in America are dependent on their smartphones in-store to compare prices.

3. Around 63% of US consumers rely on their mobile devices to retrieve discounts/coupons for in-store purchases.

4. It has been observed that nearly 41.32% of conversions take place in retail because of the usage of mobile devices.

5. Conversion rate by various mobile devices:

• Tablets: 3.48%
• Desktops: 2.38%
• Mobile phones: 2.12%

Top 10 Mobile Commerce Market Players

It is the efforts and innovations of the market leaders which have taken the mCommerce market to new horizons. The kinds of services these players provide without compromising the quality and experience of the consumer is very appreciable.

These market leaders are the main actors which provide support to the mCommerce market in such a competitive world.

• Gemalto 

It is a multinational company which deals in digital security and provides various software solutions to its clients along with offering secure mobile devices like smart cards. Gemalto individually holds more than 24% stake in a company called Netsize, which is a mobile commerce enabler company.

• Mastercard

It is a global pioneer in payment technology. Mastercard company deals with electronic transactions & payments by partnering with multiple players. Its core products include consumer credit / debit & prepaid cards.

• PayPal 

It is a US company which is into payment transaction services. It provides money transfer services to many commercial sites all over the world. It charges inreturn of providing seamless transaction services globally.

• Amazon 

It is a large Internet-based company which provides an array of products to its customers. Its mobile oriented website has been very successful globally. Regardless, it is a market leader in the mobile commerce industry.

• Apple

It is an US based multinational company which provides various innovative electronic products to its customers and has a significant share in the mCommerce market.

• Ericsson 

It is a Sweden based multinational company which deals with telecommunication & networking. This company consistently works on enhancing the telecommunication services which has a direct impact on the mCommerce market as well.

• VISA 

It is a multinational company which is one the market leaders in payment processing networks in the world. VISA’s core offerings are credit/debit, prepaid cards along with ATM services globally.

• Walmart 

It is a US based multinational company which has a huge chain of supermarkets. It is one of the most successful conglomerates in the world. It has a major contribution in the mCommerce revenue generation.

• Google 

It is a US based multinational company that provides various internet based services from cloud services to payments services. It has been the backbone to many industries and the mCommerce industry is also one of them.

Google has provided visibility as well as competition to the mCommerce industry which has led to an increase in quality of the service and revenue generation.

• SAP 

It is a German based multinational company which provides ERP solutions to companies helping them in managing their business. Many companies are moving towards integration of their business with ERP in order to run their business efficiently.

Mobile commerce market trends that will dominate in 2021-2025

1. One-click checkout

While proceeding to checkout, we all have experienced this, filling out a number of fields like name, address, contact details, card information to name a few.

We all know how tedious it becomes at times, especially when doing it from our smartphones. According to a statistical report, shopping cart abandonment rates are:

• Mobile apps: 20%

• Desktop sites: 68%

• Mobile sites: 97%

We can clearly see the highest abandonment rate from mobile sites. By implementing one-click checkout, the user details will be saved with the user profile and the user need not pay every time he/she places an order.

Not only this provides ease to the customer but also provides more conversions to the merchant.

2. Crypto payments

Crypto currencies are gaining momentum these days, since there is no regulatory body and it all works on blockchain technology which is considered as one of the safest technologies and it is considered to be one of cheapest ways of doing transactions because there is very less transaction charge in crypto.

The reasons that make us believe that crypto payments would flourish in coming years are:

• Highly secure.

• Faster transactions.

• Low transaction charges.

3. Voice search

With technological advancement, voice assistants like google assistant, alexa and siri have gained popularity over the years. More and more people are doing voice search in their day to day life to know about different products and even for shopping. Voice search seems to have penetrated in the mobile commerce market.

It is expected that voice shopping will be reaching the mark of $40 billion by 2022. The fact that 20% of all the searches are made from voice search makes us believe that voice search is going to have a significant impact on the mobile commerce industry in the coming years.

4. Omnichannel experience

With the cut-throat competition prevailing in the market, nearly half of the businesses are using various channels to communicate and reach out to their customers. Every business is leaving no stone unturned to provide their customers the best shopping experience.

This competition may give rise to the ideology of omnichannel experience in the coming years. The businesses may bring down all the different channels be it an offline channel or an online channel as a single unit, so as to provide an organic shopping experience to their customers.

5. Augmented reality

Augmented reality has a way to go in the mCommerce industry. Augmented reality makes the shopping experience of the consumer much better by providing a realistic way of trying out the products online.

For example, Lenskart has already implemented it in their business by providing a ‘3D try on’ feature, which enables customers to try out different virtual spectacles.

This just not only provides a better shopping experience to the online customer but also increases the conversion rates for the merchant. So, it’s a win-win! 

By 2025, the AR industry is predicted to surpass the $35 billion mark.

6. Chatbots

We all have interacted with chatbots at some point in our lives. The main advantage of chatbot is quick response because it is built with artificial intelligence. Chatbots are 24/7 available and they can help the customers with basic problems and queries.

Unfortunately, the mobile commerce industry has not yet implemented this technology. According to a survey, 54% of the people said that they would prefer interacting with a chatbot as compared to a company executive because it saves their time.

Chatbots have already helped eCommerce websites in dealing with many customers simultaneously and it is expected that the mobile commerce industry would also start implementing this technology more often in the near future.