M-Commerce Doubles, iDevices Lead the Charge

Online sales have shown strong results in 2011, with Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) lending a generous helping hand. We are not talking gadgets bought online or apps purchased at Apple's App store, but purchases from regular retailers bought while browsing on a mobile device, simply known as m-commerce. The share of total dollars spend online made on mobile devices doubled from 1.77 percent in April of this year to 3.74 percent in December. Findings are made available on a study released by retail analysis firm RichRelevance, which combed over 3.4 billion shopping sessions occurring during the April-December 2011 period.

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RichRelevance says over 92 percent of sales originated on iOS devices manufactured by Apple, which include the iPhone and the iPad (as well as the iPod Touch). According to the research firm, iOS users outspend the rest of the mobile market goers. In December 2011, for example, the average iOS user spent $123 on average, compared to $101 on average for Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) Android users. Both iOS and Android user bases, on the other hand, outspend the [comparatively luddite?] desktop shoppers, who in December shelled out an average of just $87 per transaction.

In addition to being confident in online purchases, m-shoppers are becoming more numerous, as shown with the doubling of their expenditures from April to December of 2011. Although comprising just over three percent of online shoppers in number currently, the m-commerce market share is continuing to ramp up. There are currently 90 million smartphones and 24 million tablets in the hands of Americans, which will continue to aid these trends--if they haven't already--as consumers get more comfortable with their devices' security when it comes to trusting online transactions. Apple, for one, requires a valid credit or debit card number to initiate an Apple ID, which is a compulsory part of a user's iOS experience.

For mobile shoppers, the increased convenience and user experience may prove worthwhile as often a transaction in a mobile device is a single-touch affair. In addition, the intended mobility of handheld internet access makes shopping a breeze, especially when placing an order for a better priced offerings when a consumer is browsing in a physical store location. This begs the obvious question of what the future holds for physical retailers other than to provide a showroom proxy for virtual retailers. We hope it does not entail news like this.