Expect Explosive Growth For Mobile Commerce

In a recent study by Tapjoy, they had found mobile commerce is expected to grow by over an astounding 300% by 2015. While many analysts are starting to focus on the upcoming shopping season where many shoppers will brave the crowds at malls and local stores preparing for the holidays, we are seeing big growth in the number number of shoppers who will turn to mobile applications and mobile web sites for holiday shopping this year – or at a minimum they will be engaging in a great deal of mobile research to assist with their shopping. According to the new study from Tapjoy, 1 in 5 apparel buyers currently uses a mobile app or web site at least daily to buy or participate in research.

Some additional findings by Tapjoy point to explosive growth in the mobile marketplace. A full 54% of Tapjoy’s customers shopped via mobile in the previous six months and 45M smartphone users looked into the shopping app category in June of 2012 with almost half of them using these mobile shopping applications. But beyond just the numbers of users, what is powerful is the frequency of use among them with an average user accessing mobile shopping apps 17 times per month. A very solid 64% of those Tapjoy polled said they are going to make mobile purchases at some point during this holiday season.

Looking at the usage patterns of users while utilizing mobile devices and applications, users are comparing prices 61 percent of the time and accessing promotions/coupons 51 percent of the time for the most active areas of usage. We also see shoppers reading reviews, scanning bar codes and taking pictures of products while shopping.

Mobile deals is a big area to keep an eye on, according to the Tapjoy report, mobile shoppers are smart shoppers and they are looking for deals. Most often they look for free shipping deals, but nearly half also look for coupons or promo deals. One item that is good to note if you are currently planning a mobile application for your business is that less than 10 percent of users view mobile product videos, so don’t worry about video content as it isn’t a key factor and it will can eat up bandwidth quickly.

If you utilize these research factors in helping to plan your mobile application it will help you key in on the areas that will be most productive for your business buy helping you match existing usage trends. Clearly given the explosive growth of mobile applications and mobile commerce, you are putting yourself at a serious disadvantage if you are not yet taking advantage of this crucial medium of communication.