Online and mobile measurement firm comScore Inc.’s newly released “U.S. Digital Future in Focus 2015” annual report makes one thing perfectly clear: mobile.
For example, the comScore report, which compares December 2014 with December 2013, shows that:
- 75% of U.S. mobile phone users own smartphones, the key to anywhere/anytime Internet access. 53% of those smartphones accessing the Internet are Android, 42% are Apple Inc. iPhones (iOS), and 5% use other mobile operating systems.
- The consumption of digital content online by U.S. consumers on smartphones is up 394% over the last four years, and on tablets 1,721%. Desktop is up 37%. Mobile devices are not taking away from desktop online time—consumers simply are spending much more time online thanks to mobile devices.
- The percentage of Internet users who go online via multiple devices has never been higher: 75%.
- The percentage of Internet users who only go online via mobile devices has never been higher: 12%.
- Consumer searches on smartphones grew 17% and on tablets 28%. Consumers desktop searches dropped 1%.
- 52% of all digital time—web, apps, desktop, tablet, smartphone, wearable—is spent within a mobile app.
So what does all of this mean for online retailing? Total U.S. retail digital commerce grew 14% in 2014: Desktop e-commerce increased 13% while mobile commerce jumped 28%, comScore finds. Although mobile commerce is growing at more than twice the rate of desktop e-commerce, there still is a significant mobile monetization gap, comScore says. As retailers continue to remove “friction” in the mobile shopping process, especially mobile checkout, mobile sales will accelerate, comScore says.
“To date, not enough conditions have been met for mobile commerce to realize its full potential,” comScore writes in the report. “But with the continued uptick in smartphone screen size, improved connection speeds, and apps and mobile websites better optimized for conversion, we should see more smartphone users become comfortable with converting on their phones. Enough of the market enablers have aligned to accelerate m-commerce growth in 2015. It will still be far from realizing its full potential.”
Follow Bill Siwicki, editor of the Internet Retailer 2015 Mobile 500 and editor, mobile, of Internet Retailer, on Twitter at @IRmcommerce and @MobileStrat360B.
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