Mobile accounted for 13% of online sales in the US in Q1 2012

"Mobile is capturing a larger share of the online retailer sector in the US, according to a new report from IBM. Mobile commerce grew to 13.3 per cent of all online retail sales during the first quarter.
Mobile devices generated 17.1 per cent of all online sessions on retail sites, making a significant jump from 6.1 per cent in the year-ago period. The iPhone drives 6.5 per cent of mobile device retail traffic while Android captures 5.9 per cent and the iPad comprised 5.3 per cent.
"Over the first quarter, the digitally empowered consumer continued to demonstrate the momentum of the online channel and specifically mobile commerce, which has established itself as a legitimate channel for shopping," says Craig Hayman, general manager at IBM Industry Solutions. "Moving ahead, we will help retailers synchronize the demand and supply chains to address issues of product availability and connect to the mobile buyer.""
Source:  Data from IBM, reported by Mobile Marketing, 3rd May 2012

Square is processing $5bn of payments a year

"Payments platform Square has released a number of new stats today, as well as good news for merchants using its mobile payments app to accept credit cards. According to a Bloomberg report, Square is now processing $5 billion in annual payments (or around $416 million in payments per month), which is up from $4 billion in annual payments in March. And payment volume is up 25 percent over the past month.
Square also says that it will be making funds available in merchants’ bank accounts the next business morning (for any sales made before 5 pm), while other merchant processors can take 2 to 5 business days to get merchants their money. This is a big win for merchants, who now have access to their sales revenue immediately."

Source:  TechCrunch, 18th April 2012

A fifth of online shoppers buy with smartphones

"Payment processing firm WoldPay released its Global Online Shopping Report, which surveyed 15 countries on their e-commerce behaviours in order to uncover differences between nations. It found that on average 22% of disposable income was spent online internationally.
Furthermore, in general the percentage of income spent was higher in emerging markets. Taking the lead is India, where respondents spend 36% of their disposable income on purchasing products or services online.
In China this figure fell slightly to 31% of income spent on e-commerce, and Brazilians were clocked a as dedicating 27% of their earnings in this fashion.
The survey found the spending amounts in mature markets are the highest in the UK, where people spent a quarter of their disposable income on online goods and services, whereas peoples in Finland spend only 13%. Spain and France allocate 17% and 19% of their income respectively.
The proliferation of smartphones has opened up different channels for shoppers to make their purchase, another factor that is proven to vary across the markets.
The survey found that just under a fifth of all online shoppers globally use their smartphone to make a purchase, with people in China using this method the most, (46%), and France coming in last with this metric at 7%."

Source:  Research by WorldPay, reported by UTalkMarketing, 27th April 2012

The iPad accounts for 90% of mobile shopping revenue in the US

"According to the 2012 Q1 Mobile Study iPad users spent significantly more time and money on retail sites than other mobile users. Data from March 2012 shows that:
iPad users constitute the bulk of all mobile shoppers—accounting for about two-thirds (68%) of shoppers.
The iPad accounts for 90% of all mobile revenue (and 4% of total retail revenue).
Conversion rates were also strongest with the iPad (1.5% for iPad vs. 0.57% for other mobile devices).
Average pages per session were highest for the iPad compared with all other mobile devices, at nearly 6 pages per session (5.7 for iPads vs. 3.6 for iPhone vs. 4.1 for other mobile devices).
iPad Users Spend More, Buy More Expensive Items (even more than desktop users)
iPad users spend dramatically more – on fewer items – than other mobile shoppers. When compared to online shoppers, iPad users spend approximately the same amount on an average order, but buy much more expensive products.
The iPad had the highest average order value (AOV) of any mobile device: $158 for iPad vs. $105 for other mobile devices vs. $104 for iPhone and other iOS devices in March 2012.
Interestingly, AOV for iPad shopping is creeping ahead of the AOV from desktop computers. ($158 for iPad vs. $153 from desktops).
While they spend more per average order, iPad shoppers had on average fewer number of items per order of any mobile device (2.98 for iPad vs. 4.22 for other iOS devices vs. 4.41 for all other mobile devices in March 2012)
Overall, iPad shoppers averaged $52.66 per item vs. $21.86 per item for desktop users and $23.80 for other mobile users."

Source:  Data from the Rich Relevance Shopping Insights Q1 Survey, reported in a press release, 11th April 2012

Starbucks has processed more than 42 million mobile payments in the US

"A novel new way to pay by iPhone or Android at Starbucks locations is proving too convenient for caffeine-crazed customers to pass up.
Starbucks has processed more than 42 million mobile payments since the U.S. launch of its mobile pay program less than 15 months ago, the coffee company shared exclusively with VentureBeat.
Starbucks released “mobile pay,” a prominent feature of the company’s iPhone and Android applications, in January 2011. Customers use the mobile app to load money on to a digital Starbucks Card and then present a 2D barcode to pay at the register. Baristas simply scan the barcode using the scanners they already have at their cash registers. Mobile pay first launched in the U.S., but has since migrated to Canada and the U.K., and Starbucks recently made it available to customers ordering from drive-thru windows.
In December 2011, Starbucks revealed that it had processed 26 million mobile payments. Adoption continues to grow expotentially, the company said."

Source:  VentureBeat, 9th April 2012

Domino's Pizza generated £1m in sales through its mobile platform in one week

"Domino’s has announced that it took over £1m in sales through its mobile platform in a single week in Q1 2012.
In total e-commerce sales accounted for 50.6% of UK sales in the 13 week period up to March 25 2012, up 44.5% year-on-year to £59.3m.
Mobile payments made up 16.4% of total online sales, a slight increase on reports last month that the pizza company took 13% of digital sales through a tablet or smartphone."

Source:  Econsultancy, 28th March 2012

25% of Groupons purchased in December were bought on a mobile device

"Groupon today announced record mobile performance in North America in December 2011 with one quarter of all Groupon vouchers purchased via a mobile device and both consumer and merchant app usage up significantly year over year.
December 2011 North American Mobile Performance:
25% of Groupons were purchased on a mobile device
Mobile app users increased by more than three times from last December to over nine million
More than 12,000 merchant partners used Groupon's merchant mobile app to redeem vouchers and track purchases using an iOS device or an Android phone."

Source:  Press release from Groupon, 27th February 2012

Shopping behaviour of people who research purchases on a smartphone

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Source:  Data from Google, reported in a blog post, 13th February 2012

Reasons for mobile site abandonment

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Source:  Data from Limelight Networks, reported in their blog, 22nd November 2011
Note - this refers to people abandoning websites that they are visiting on a mobile device

Mobile payments company Square has over 1m merchants

"Mobile payments startup Square now has more than 1 million merchants charging credit cards with the service, the company announced today.
“Just as small businesses are growing with Square, we’re growing with them: Over 1 million merchants now accept credit cards via Square,” the company said on Twitter.
Square is one of a handful of companies, along with names like PayPal, Google and Intuit, that are quickly transforming the mobile payments landscape. The company’s service has seen huge growth since its debut in late 2009. At last check, the company was signing up between 30,000 and 50,000 new merchants each month, so it’s no wonder Square finally hit the 1 million merchant mark.
One of the latest ways Square, which is led by Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey, is evolving is with its Card Case app for iOS 5. The app allows for hands-free payments to merchants that use Square. Ideally, as more small businesses accept Square, more users will adopt the Card Case application to speed up the payment process."
Source:  VentureBeat, 13th December 2011

14% of US online shopping traffic on Black Friday came from mobile devices

"The expected explosion of mobile media use during this holiday buying cycle appears to be starting. According to the IBM Smarter Commerce benchmark of online retail activity, mobile platforms were responsible for 14.3% of all online shopping traffic on Black Friday, more than doubling the 5.6% of traffic IBM recorded last year. Perhaps even more impressive, sales from mobile devices reached 9.8% of digital retail transactions, tripling the 3.2% of last year.
The surge in mobile activity was part of an overall 24.3% spike in online spending for the day over last year."

Source:  MediaPost, 27th November 2011

2/3 of smartphone owners in the US used their phones for shopping-related activities in September 2011

"The results showed that 38 percent of smartphone owners have used their phone to make a purchase at least once in the course of their device ownership. The most popular products purchased on smartphones during the month of September included digital goods, clothing/accessories, tickets and daily deals.
[...]
“Fueled by smartphone adoption, mobile is becoming a central part in the shopping funnel for many consumers,” said Mark Donovan, comScore senior vice president for mobile. “In September we saw two-thirds of all smartphone owners perform shopping activities on their phones, including comparing products and prices, searching for coupons, taking product pictures or locating a retail store. Considering there are currently 90 million smartphone owners in the U.S., retailers without a well-developed mobile strategy are not only missing a tremendous opportunity with these customers but also risk becoming obsolete in the minds of these digital omnivores.”"

Source:  Data from comScore reported in a press release, 5th December 2011

How digital media & technology is changing retail behaviour

"Across most categories of goods, the majority of respondents reported a preference to purchase items online rather than at a physical outlet. In the UK 74% percent of consumers said they were more likely to buy flights and vacations online (globally 70%), 77% prefer to buy CDs, DVDs, books and video games online (65% globally).
However, the majority of respondents said they prefer to purchase luxury goods in store and four in ten consumers still seem to shun online grocery shopping. These trends are particularly evident in the Americas where more than three quarters of respondents said they would book a flight online, but only 21 percent said they were more likely to buy groceries online.
The survey reveals the extent to which smartphones and tablets are changing shopping behaviour. When shopping at retail outlets, 45% of UK respondents said they now use their mobile devices to locate the nearest store, 32% to research products and services, 30% for online coupons and one in 5 (19%) scan in barcodes to for product information. Globally 41% research products & services and almost a quarter pay with their mobile devices.
When buying products or services the majority of customers in the UK and globally consult feedback and ratings pages on the internet or get information on social networks such as Facebook and Twitter. Monitoring and managing third party information sources will therefore be a key element of any digital sales strategy."

Source:  From KPMG's Consumers & Convergence Report, reported in a press release, 5th December 2011

Methodology:  "Consumers and Convergence V: The Converged Lifestyle [hyperlink], KPMG’s survey of consumer trends in digital technology, communications and e-commerce surveyed 9,600 consumers in 31 countries ranging in age from 16 to over 65."

Paypal's global mobile payments were 516% higher Y-o-Y on Black Friday 2011

"By using their mobile devices, shoppers have access to a “mall” in the palm of their hand, complete with millions of products and simple, secure payments, to find and buy the hottest holiday deals. An increasing number of shoppers turned to their mobile devices on Black Friday to shop wherever, whenever.
- eBay Mobile announced that shoppers in the U.S. purchased nearly two and a half times as many items via eBay Mobile this Black Friday when compared to 2010
- PayPal Mobile announced a six-fold (516%) increase in global mobile payment volume compared to 2010
- GSI Commerce announced a three-fold (254%) increase in U.S. mobile sales this Black Friday compared to 2010.
“Shoppers are increasingly choosing the convenience of mobile to find the best deals from wherever they are while avoiding big crowds and long lines,” said Steve Yankovich, vice president, Mobile, for eBay Inc. “The ability to simply pick up your phone or tablet and purchase what you want, when you want it, has become an attractive alternative to shoppers in record numbers this holiday season.”"
Source:  Press release from eBay, 26th November 2011

A quarter of Christmas shopping-related searches in Australia come from mobile devices

"While Christmas Day may be 6 weeks away, the Christmas shopping season is already in full swing, and everyone wants to know what’s in store for the millions of businesses, shops, and retailers looking forward to a very busy Christmas. We may not have a crystal ball, but we do have a good sense of what Australia’s Christmas shoppers are searching for online. So we started crunching the numbers to see what we could learn about how people are searching and shopping this year.
We discovered some interesting facts. First of all, 2011 is retail’s biggest year yet online--even bigger than the record-setting online shopping season driven by the strong Aussie dollar last year. Year over year, shopping-related searches are up 29%, making it more important than ever for businesses who want a piece of the action to get online.
However, it looks as though this year’s true Christmas miracle is mobile. While retail has posted impressive gains over last year’s season, the number of shopping queries coming from mobile devices increased 220% year on year. In fact, one quarter of all Christmas shopping-related Google searches this year now come from mobile devices.
This growth may be dramatic, but it probably shouldn’t come as a surprise. As we revealed in September, Australia has the second-highest smartphone penetration in the world. And by the end of this year, more than 50% of Australian adults will own a smartphone--just in time for Christmas. They’re using those smartphones to research gifts and contact local businesses. 1 in 5 sometimes even bypass the PC to make online purchases directly via their mobile phones.
So what does this mean for retail? To start with, it means that more people are looking for them, in more ways, and in more places: on the bus, from the train, even from the sofa while watching TV. At the same time, it means Australian businesses can’t afford to ignore mobile--without mobile-friendly websites, they’re invisible to the shoppers who’re trying to find them."

Source:  Blog post by Google, 10th November 2011

Transactions on Kenya's M-Pesa mobile money service exceed transactions made by Western Union globally

"Local transactions by Kenya’s mobile money service, M-Pesa currently exceed transactions made by Western Union globally, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) reports. According to the IMF, “M-Pesa now processes more transactions domestically within Kenya than Western Union does globally, and provides mobile banking facilities to more than 70 per cent of the country’s adult population.”
Launched in March 2007 by Kenyan telecoms operator, Safaricom, the service which now has over 14 million users in Kenya is currently the world’s most successful mobile payments system."

Source:  TheNextWeb, 24th October 2011

Via

The top 10 most popular purchases through mobile

"Jumptap’s study looked at the most popular mobile purchases. Here's the top 10:
1. Event tickets; daily deals: 38 percent of mobile device owners have made these purchases (tie)
3. Apparel or accessories: 36 percent
4. Travel; physical copies of books, video games or movies: 33 percent (tie)
6. Consumer electronics (TVs, etc., but excluding mobile phones): 32 percent
7. Flowers and gifts; toys: 30 percent (tie)
9. General services (photo printing, shipping services, etc.): 26 percent
10. Consumer packaged goods; sports and fitness: 25 percent (tie)"
Source:  Research from Jumptap and comScore, reported by AdWeek, 10th November 2011
Note - no country is stated, but I'm assuming that it's the US

US Portable Game Software by Revenue 2009-2011

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Source:  Lurry Analytics, NPD Group and other estimates, reported on the Flurry blog, 9th November 2011
Note - I don't normally put projections in, but this contains more real data than projections

6% of shopping searches in Brazil come from mobile devices

"Across Latin America, smartphones and mobile broadband subscribers are growing at a high rate and have in turn driven the mobile strategies of wireless operators. Today, Brazil is No. 5 in the world in number of Internet users and is second to China in growth of 3G subscribers year-over-year.
“The mobile Web is exploding in Brazil, helped with the increase of prepaid data, which is cheaper than going to cyber cafes and also more private,” noted Google’s head of mobile advertising for Latam, Peter Fernandez, during the Mobile Marketing Association Forum in São Paulo.
People are changing their lifestyle and how they consume information. Companies, as well as advertising agencies, carriers and applications developers have to understand that and move forward to provide these new customers what they demand.
“Now, 6% of shopping searches in Brazil are coming from mobile. It’s a 700% growth compared to the past year, and eight times faster than desktops,” noted Fernandez."

Source:  RCRWireless, 20th October 2011

70% of mobile payment company Square's merchants did not previously accept credit cards

"Square is nixing a policy that prevented merchants from immediately receiving any profits exceeding $1,000 per week, looking to attract even bigger businesses and edge out rivals in the growing mobile payment market.
Square originally implemented this measure to prevent fraud, according to company CEO Keith Rabois. "Now that we've been commercially available for a year, we can now spot statistical anomalies," he explained.
Such an improvement stands to lure larger stores into Square's fold, since they won't have to wait up to one month to recoup their additional profits. At the moment, Square's base is mainly small businesses, 70 percent of which did not previously accept credit cards because of associated fees.
The San Francisco, Calif.-based company now boasts 800,000 merchants and processes $2 billion in payments, according to Rabois.
"In a year, we've been able to offer payment services to the equivalent of 10 percent of Visa and MasterCard's network," the CEO said."

Source:  Mobiledia, 11th October 2011