M-commerce will be the fastest growing retail sales channel over the next 10 years, new research finds. British consumers are expected to spend more than £13 billion per year on mobile shopping.
The latest figures from Barclays Corporate forecasted that mobile and tablet shoppers will spend up to 15 times more on mobile shopping by 2021. This rise up to £19.3 billion a year is a significant increase compared with the £1.3 billion spent today.
M-commerce is expected to rise by 55% over the next five years. It will see the fastest growth of any retail channel in the coming years. In contrast online sales will go up by 8% and in-store sales by 1.6%. Mail order sales are expected to decrease by 1.2%.
Overall, 2021’s total retail sales are expected to be worth some £390 billion; m-commerce will account for 4.9% of all sales, the report reveals.
The m-commerce shopping list
Data also shows that food and grocery shopping is what generates more ‘on the go’ mobile purchases, with Argos, Tesco and Asda being among the ten most visited websites via mobile. While mobile purchasing has generated nearly £300 million for supermarkets and grocery stores so far this year, annual profits for the channel are predicted to top £5 billion by 2021.
The second “most popular” mobile purchases are electrical goods, which are set to generate up to £290 million profit. By 2021, however, electrical sales will fall in value terms, dropping to fourth position in the rankings and reaching £2.1 billion per year over the decade.
Personal care products such as baby, health and beauty articles are also among the British m-commerce shopping list expected to increase in coming years. This sector has generated £63 million in m-commerce sales so far this year and is expected to bring up to £3.1 billion by 2021.
Why is m-commerce so popular?
A majority of 52% of Brits are already using mobile at one or more stages of the shopping process today. The convenience of amending shopping lists, making payments and arranging delivery times via mobile are what consumers like the most about ‘on the go’ mobile purchases. Little wonder then that many companies are using solutions such as an SMS services to develop better mobile marketing and to improve customer communication.
