Last year’s Cyber Monday, which once was a weak follower of Black Friday, showed impressive statistics for the Monday after Thanksgiving. They were not quite as impressive as the weekend statistics, but many stores did start their Cyber Monday sales early.
Purchasing from Mobile Devices
In comparison to Cyber Monday of 2012, there was a great increase in mobile customers in 2013. United States customers mainly used their mobile devices when they were shopping (from work) on Cyber Monday. The same was true of other holiday shopping days. The busiest time of Cyber Monday was actually between 9 and 10 p.m. Eastern Time, which was after the end of the workday. Still, many people used their tablets and smartphones for purchases.
Consumers use mobile phones for browsing, even if they don’t buy online. They can narrow down the items to their favorites and still shop online from laptops or PCs or shop at brick and mortar stores.
Holiday Activity on Tablets and Smartphones
Mobile activity during the 2013 holiday weekend, including Saturday, November 30 and Sunday, December 1, was higher than 2012 also. Many consumers accessed shopping platforms from mobile devices. Browsing increased by more than 110 per cent and mobile orders in total were nearly 98 per cent higher than in 2012.
Tablets Make Their Mark on Mobile Shopping
Commerce sales from mobile devices are expected to pass $100 billion in 2014, and this increase has been driven by strong tablet sales, as well as the addition of more consumers shopping on smartphones.
Splitting up the purchases from phones and tablets, shopping from tablets is projected to hit about $76 billion. Purchases from phones are supposed to top $38 billion. These statistics are up significantly from 2013. Even with these impressive statistics, many people who own mobile devices do not make purchases from them. So, the numbers can only go higher.
This increase is attributed to the speedy way in which consumers have adopted mobile phones and tablets. Americans are becoming more comfortable shopping on mobile devices, so merchants should be working feverishly to improve the shopping experience of mobile users.
The Future of Mobile Commerce
If the statistics are accurate, only about 40 per cent of owners of smartphones and more than 30 per cent of owners of tablets make purchases on their devices. These numbers are still quite low and have plenty of room for growth. The figure is supposed to grow to 61 per cent for making purchases on their tablets and 55 per cent for making purchases from their smartphones by the year 2018.
In 2018, it is estimated that total mobile eCommerce sales will reach nearly $300 billion. This is a large part of an expected online sales total of $414 billion, which shows the massive marketplace still open to more online purchases from mobile devices.
