This month in the world of app commerce – February
This month the growth of mcommerce is prominent and the influence of social media impacts the way we shop.
The state of the mcommerce landscape
Mobile’s share of the ecommerce market is growing and several reports have been released this February that corroborate this fact. According to Salesforce Commerce Cloud during key trading days over the festive period, mobile sales were particularly strong. Christmas Day, for example, accounted for 68% of traffic and 46% of orders. Taking a closer look at mobile sales we found that apps’ contribution to mcommerce actually doubled on Black Friday compared to 2016. Criteo’s latest research suggests that retailers that have mobile websites and apps see an average of two-thirds of their online sales coming from mobile devices.
Mobile commerce trends upwards in the US
Research conducted by eMarketer found that 34.5% of US ecommerce sales were made via mobile and mobile’s share of US online sales is expected to grow by 50% by 2020. As it stands, mobile currently accounts for 6% of global total retail sales rising 40% from the year before. These projections are in line with Forrester’s forecast suggesting that smartphones will impact 34% of total retail sales in the US in 2018, and 42% of sales by 2022.
Social drives retail changes to impact app commerce
Social media has long been a driver for shaping the way we use our phones and consequently the way we shop. The gestures and behaviours we have grown familiar with on social media have been transposed into our mobile experiences. This month Google announced its plan to release a Stories feature within search results, riding the tide of large social media enterprises like Snapchat and Instagram who have already had great success. It’s also a feature we introduced in our latest platform release making Stories shoppable.
App commerce has driven changes in social too
Augmented Reality (AR) has commonly been used by home furnishing and beauty retailers to demonstrate their products in the real world without you having to leave the comfort of your home. However, Facebook is now bringing AR and 3D images to their newsfeed, with interactive 3D models and considerable interest from major brands including retailers and games companies. Things like Facebook Marketplace have been closing the gap between social and ecommerce in recent years and now the gap looks to grow even smaller. Snapchat opened a new Snap Store this month that teases in-app commerce, demonstrating how the way we shop influences social too.
If you’d like to find out more about how app commerce is growing and shaping shopping behaviour, especially over the festive season, read our ‘App Commerce Peak Trading Report’.
Reported by Samantha Rigg
