Last year, £7.5 billion was spent through mobile devices with sales via mobile accounting for 12 per cent of total e-tail sales in 2012, research released today has shown.
Some £62.4 billion was spent at online retail sites last year, according to the IMRG Capgemini Quarterly Benchmarking survey, triple the value reported in 2011 when sales via mobile devices accounted for just four per cent of overall e-tail sales.
Mobile sales growth throughout the year was consistently around 300 per cent, the report noted, though it highlighted a “considerable slowdown toward the end of 2012 both in terms of sales and visits”.
Between Q1 and Q4 2012, sales via mobile devices almost doubled from 8.2 per cent to 15.4 per cent though IMRG Capgemini has anticipated halfway through the year that this could reach as much as 20 per cent by Q4.
Chris Webster, Vice President of Consumer Products and Retail at Capgemini said of the findings: “The results leave very little doubt the value advancements in mobile technology have brought to the retail sector, however we have seen a clear division in the mobile channels, with shoppers four times more likely to purchase an item on a tablet device over a smartphone.
“The slowdown of sales made on a smartphone suggests there is an issue with the customer experience retailers are offering. If retailers are to reinvigorate the level of adoption, they must recognise the difference in the mobile channels and build specific customer experiences for the smartphone.”
Site visits via mobile devices increased by 13 per cent on 2011 to 21 per cent though, again, the company had predicted that visits could reach 30 per cent by the final quarter, though the final result of 24 per cent fell short of expectations.
“While we are starting to see a levelling off in the growth of both sales and visits, 1 in 8 sales and 1 in 5 visits were through mobile devices in 2012 and conversion rates continue to rise,” explained Chief Information Officer at IMRG Tina Spooner.
“2012 is regarded by many as the year mobile truly arrived and these figures certainly justify that claim.
“The IMRG Capgemini Quarterly Benchmarking has shown sales via mobile devices have tripled in the space of a year, which is a trend supported by our separate m-Retail Index, where average growth in 2012 was 304 per cent.”
