Yesterday BusinessWeek.com posted an article titled “M-Commerce’s Big Moment,” and it includes statistics and examples highlighting the growth of mobile as a viable commerce platform much more evolved than its ringtone marketplace roots.
- “…by the end of the second quarter only about 7% of U.S. consumers bought goods or conducted financial transactions via cell phone, according to a Nielsen Mobile survey of more than 90,000 people,” but this is growing rapidly. “In January, consultant ABI Research projected North American sales of physical goods ordered via cell phone would reach $544 million this year, up from $346 million in 2008. Now, Mark Beccue, senior analyst at ABI, is considering updating his 2009 forecast to $800 million.” What is interesting about this figure is that investments in mobile marketing in 2009 were forecasted at about $400M by Forrester in a July 2009 report titled “U.S. Interactive Marketing Forecast, 2009 to 2014.” Do the math and that reflects a super high return on investment, given that the $400M figure is inclusive of all mobile marketing investment, not just that associated with commerce applications.
- Ebay and Amazon.com accounted for 70 percent of physical goods sales conducted via mobile in 2008. If nothing else, this illustrates consumer adoption of m-commerce as a viable transaction platform, and concerns over data/credit card privacy should wane as Visa and other companies provide secure solutions optimized for mobile, as pointed out in the article.
- “By the end of 2009, about half of established retailers may have mobile Web sites, up from less than 20%.” Given escalating adoption of Smartphones capable of providing a rich mobile web experience, retailers should reap considerable benefits. “In the second quarter, 28% of all handsets sold in the U.S. were smartphones, up from 19% a year earlier, according to consultant NPD Group. And more Americans will be able to gain access to the mobile Web soon. One-third of consumers without a Web-enabled phone plan to purchase such a device within the next year, according to a survey of 3,305 U.S. consumers conducted in March…”
- Mobile is becoming the only channel that matters, in some cases replacing the traditional desktop PC. “A large portion of the customer base is totally replacing their online experience with mobile, says Ensign of Papa John’s. We think a lot of the times they were customers of Papa John’s [before] but ordered from other restaurants, too. But now there’s a new convenience with Papa John’s, and we are getting a greater percentage of their purchases.”
The article concludes astutely that the development of this picture is entirely dependent on the network which connects consumers with businesses. The “iPhone is morphing into a kind of predator parasite on the wireless network, sucking out the value and leaving networks gasping for air,” which means more than the risk of slow networks stalling m-commerce.
In the event networks play catch up mode with Smartphone adoption and usage, mobile marketers with strong ties to their on the go customers will more likely benefit from a greater share of consumer spending simply for the sake of convenience and prior experience. For that reason, retailers and businesses of all kinds need to begin engaging their customers now in mobile dialogues based on business objectives mapped to the Mobile Customer Experience.
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