The Rise of Mobile Commerce: Shopping Stats & Upcoming Trends for 2023

Mobile ecommerce, otherwise known as m-commerce, is thriving at the moment. This is a form of online shopping that happens on a mobile device.

The mobile ecommerce market size reached a value of $833.9 billion back in 2021. It’s anticipated that this will reach $4,711.9 billion by 2027, meaning a 33.46% CAGR during this period.

In 2023, mobile retail ecommerce sales are projected to exceed $510 billion. The vast majority of these sales will happen on a smartphone. Around seven years ago, m-commerce had a fairly even split between smartphones and tablets. However, smartphones now make up approximately 87% of m-commerce sales.

We’re also seeing a number of knock-on effects in light of the dominance of mobile commerce. For example, the worldwide mobile coupon market is expected to grow by 56.5% by 2025.

With that said, we decided it was the perfect time to explore mobile commerce further. Read on to discover everything you need to know about the different types of mobile commerce and the mobile commerce trends you need to know about in 2023.

What is mobile commerce?

Mobile commerce refers to the process of using a mobile device to complete an online transaction. Mobile commerce is a facet of e-commerce.

Any kind of online transaction done by a tablet or smartphone is deemed a form of m-commerce.

There are different types of mobile commerce. Seven mobile commerce examples are as follows:

• Marketplace apps
• In-app purchasing
• Mobile ticketing
• Mobile transactions/payments
• Mobile banking
• Social commerce
• Making a purchase

Reasons for the rise of mobile commerce

The growth of mobile commerce can be attributed to how we access the Internet today. As high-speed Internet is no longer a premium in many countries and smartphones are so accessible, users are leaning toward their smaller devices for online browsing.

Naturally, businesses need to be where their users are, which is why companies must embrace m-commerce.

There are also numerous benefits of mobile commerce, including:

• You’ll reach a wide audience – It’s estimated that there are approximately 6.92 billion smartphone users worldwide today, meaning over 86% of the world’s population owns one of these devices.
• Many payment options – Customers are spoilt for choice regarding payment methods on mobile commerce. Whether it’s crypto, an e-wallet, or a conventional debit or credit card, you can integrate these options into your mobile store.
• Offer seamless customer support – Customer support bots have developed in terms of intuitiveness and intelligence, meaning these bots are much more efficient in dealing with common queries.
• Better user experience – For years, the smartphone Internet experience was quite clunky. Websites were not optimised for smaller devices, making it difficult to browse and perform certain actions. However, these days are long gone. Now, using a smartphone is an enjoyable online shopping method, enabling users to check out quickly and easily.

Mobile commerce shopping stats

We can see that mobile retail commerce sales have made up the bulk of all e-commerce sales since 2016 when 52.4% of retail e-commerce sales were mobile commerce sales. This has steadily increased over the years, reaching 72.9% in 2021.

Statistics also show that 21% of device users access retail shopping apps several times throughout the day, with 35% accessing such apps numerous times a week. This is only set to increase.

M-commerce vs. e-commerce: what’s the difference?

A lot of people get confused between m-commerce and e-commerce. However, m-commerce is simply a division of e-commerce.

M-commerce only covers shopping via mobile and tablet. E-commerce covers all forms of online shopping, i.e. desktop, smartphone, and tablet.

Some of the features of m-commerce include:

• Customer support
• Product search
• Multiple payment options
• Promotions and discounts
• Social media integration
• Location tracking
• Push notifications

Upcoming mobile commerce trends to follow in 2023

If you want to improve your mobile conversion rate, staying up-to-date with some of the latest mobile commerce trends makes sense. Here are the key ones to follow in 2023:

• One-click ordering – This is something that Amazon does incredibly well, enabling shoppers to check out with just one click. After all, online shopping is supposed to be about convenience. If you’re making users fill in a number of forms, they will only get frustrated and abandon their shopping carts.
• Retail mobile apps – Retail mobile apps will continue to thrive. Companies like ASOS make immense sales via their app, and app usage is on the rise too. From 2017 to 2021, e-commerce app sessions increased by 92%.
• Voice search – Research shows that 51% of shoppers use voice search when researching a brand, product, or service. Furthermore, 36% use voice search to add items to their shopping list. Your m-commerce strategy must be optimised for the use of voice search.
• Metaverse – Metaverse is certainly a buzzword at the moment. Not only are people enjoying gaming in the metaverse, but they’re buying virtual products from their favourite brands too. This is something beauty brand NYX has embraced, opening its first virtual cosmetics shop. Virtually shoppers can attend live-stream concerts, try on makeup, and much more.

The future of m-commerce

In the coming years, m-commerce will provide retailers with an excellent opportunity to boost their revenue. We’ll see both augmented reality and custom shopping apps dominate the market.

Augmented reality is set to be a huge game-changer. It will enable online shopping to be redefined. Although it takes time before users adopt this technology regularly, we’re already seeing businesses experimenting with AR and m-commerce.

A good example of this is Sephora. The make-up brand always customers to try make-up on digitally.

There are some other brands leading the way with m-commerce, including Zappos, Nike, Domino’s, and Kohl’s.

Final words on m-commerce

As you can see, m-commerce is thriving at the moment, and this trend will only continue when you consider the sheer dominance of mobile Internet use these days.

If you don’t embrace mobile commerce and leverage this for your business, you risk falling behind the competition.