U.S. M-Commerce Sales To Hit $57.8 Billion In 2014
- by Mark Walsh @markfwal, April 10, 2014
Mobile is a fast-growing but still a small part of overall U.S. retail sales.
A new eMarketer industry forecast projects retail m-commerce will increase 37.2% to $57.8 billion
this year from $42.1 billion in 2013, and reach $132.7 billion in 2018. This year, it will make up about one-fifth of all retail e-commerce but just 1.2% of total retail sales.
The m-commerce estimate includes products or services ordered using the Internet via mobile devices and excludes travel and event ticket sales. This year, tablets will account for nearly two-thirds of m-commerce sales, increasing to nearly 75% by 2018. That underscores previous research from various sources indicating tablets are the mobile device of choice for making purchases.
The study predicts e-commerce sales will grow 15.5% this year to $304.1 billion, up from $263.3 billion in 2013. Growth in Internet-based sales will represent more than 20% of the total increase in retail sales this year. But it will still make up only 5.8% of total U.S. retail sales of 4.7 trillion in 2014. That share will rise to almost 9% in 2018.
In its first-ever benchmark of total retail and retail
store sales—based on an analysis of 169 data points from 47 research firms and government agencies—eMarketer estimated overall U.S. sales grew 16.9% to $4.5 trillion in 2013. It projects
that figure will increase annually about 4% in the coming years to $5.5 trillion in 2018.
"Online
shopping" photo from Shutterstock.
Nice article, Mark. These are great numbers for retailers. What shouldn't be overlooked is that mobile is actually changing the face of in-store shopping. So while m-commerce may be a small percentage of overall retail sales, this is because mobile - when done well - actually drives brick-and-mortar revenue. Mobile apps are increasingly used for research before and during a consumer's shopping trip.