By Chuck Martin
Many of the leading online retailers are reaping the rewards of mobile commerce.
The top 366 U.S. retailers will hit mobile commerce sales of $59 billion this year, an increase of 74% from $34 billion a year ago, according to a new index.
The world’s 500 largest mobile commerce businesses combined will increase their mobile sales by 80% to more than $84 billion this year, according to the Internet Retailer index, which ranks the 500 leading Web merchants globally and analyzes their mobile commerce activity.
The index comprises an analysis of 53 data elements, such as mobile traffic, site speed on smartphones, mobile conversion rate and a breakdown of sales between smartphones and tablets.
The index lists 134 overseas retailers in the top 500 with a forecast of them reaching $25 billion in mobile commerce sales this year. This would be an increase of 96% from a year ago.
Of the 500 leading retailers in mobile commerce globally, most are in the U.S. and U.K. Here are the leading countries with the number of merchants in the top 500:
366 – United States
47 – United Kingdom
15 – China
15 – France
15 – Germany
5 — Brazil
4 – Canada
4 – Italy
4 – Spain
The index estimates that the world’s 500 largest mobile commerce businesses combined will increase their mobile sales by 80% to more than $84 billion this year.
With their combined $31 billion in mobile sales, Amazon and Apple, the top leaders, command a 37% share of total Mobile 500 mobile commerce sales.
Consistent with other research, the Internet Retailer forecast shows tablet sales leading, with 59% coming from them compared to 41% from smartphones.
Interestingly, 262 of the Web merchants provide more than 600 apps. Mobile sales by those retailers will grow 80% this year. This compares to the 238 Web merchants who do not provide apps and who will see their revenue grow 70%.
Mobile commerce is now getting well into the billions.
Chuck Martin is Editor of the mCommerce Daily at MediaPost and writes the daily MobileShopTalk column. He is the author of “Mobile Influence,” “The Third Screen,” and “The Smartphone Handbook.” He is CEO of Mobile Future Institute. Chuck Martin is a frequent Mobile Keynote Speaker and Mobile Marketing Speaker internationally. He also addresses Social Media in Mobile.
