Mobile commerce is one of the most rapidly growing markets in the present day. As smartphones proliferate, more and more consumers are using them to make purchases over the internet. At the forefront of the M-commerce boom are companies such as eBay, who were among the first to provide a mobile offering.
eBay Mobile Statistics
In figures released which cover the first quarter of 2012, eBay announced mobile sales of around USD$3.3 billion, an increase of 29% on the same period last year. PayPal’s net total payment volume increased by $34 billion, which is the equivalent of 24% on last year. Approximately 12 million people downloaded the eBay for Mobile app between January 1st and March 31st this year. There are now around 78 million shoppers worldwide who have the facility to buy products from eBay using their smartphones. Based on these figures eBay have announced that they expect to take over £8 billion in 2012 purely from mobile devices.
How eBay Mobile is Transforming Online Retail
The ability to use mobile devices to shop has opened up a whole new market and a whole new type of consumer. Conventional advertising methods are having to be scrapped and new methods evolved. Mobile shoppers are a different breed to other types of consumer. They are out and about, probably engaged in some other activity as well as shopping. They want quick results, easy to digest information and the ability to close a sale there and then if they decide they are satisfied. eBay are the forerunners of the mobile marketing strategy, as has been demonstrated by their success both today and at the dawn of mobile shopping. Having a mobile optimised website is something that many businesses are only just beginning to realise is an advantage, whereas eBay have not only been in there from the beginning but now have a tablet optimised site as well.
PayPal
The acquisition of PayPal by eBay in October 2002 has played a big part in the company’s success story. PayPal is one of the most popular secure online payment methods used globally. They currently account for around 40% of the company revenue. The ability to use a PayPal app to make secure payments over the internet even when using a mobile device has been one of the main reasons why mobile shopping has become so popular. In the past, whether a business owner looking to buy insurance software or a party girl wanting to purchase the latest fashions, there were concerns about the security of using credit cards to make payments from mobile devices. PayPal for mobile revolutionised security and therefore M-commerce as a whole.
Featured images:
- License: Creative Commons image source
- License: Creative Commons image source
- License: Creative Commons image source
This post was written on behalf of www.schemeserve.com, who quote and buy software to do with financial services.
