Mobile commerce spending accounted for almost 10% share of total e-commerce sales during the first half of this year, according to new data released by comScore. Mobile commerce sales have been rising steadily (albeit with displaying strong seasonal variance), reaching $10.6 billion for the first half of the year, a 28% increase from the corresponding period last year. Smartphone commerce, at 6% of total e-commerce spending during H1, is outpacing tablet commerce (3.5% share), but average spending per device owner is actually 20% higher on tablets. That aligns with recent research finding that tablet owners are willing to spend more than smartphone owners. Despite their lower spend per user, smartphones represent a greater share of e-commerce spending than tablets because the number of smartphone users is more than double the number of tablet users.
Taking a look at some of the leading mobile commerce product categories, comScore reveals that:
- 15.4% of digital event ticket sales took place on a smartphone (10.9%) or tablet (4.5%) during the first half (H1);
- Almost 1 in 10 online apparel and accessory sales came from a smartphone (6.2%) or tablet (3.5%);
- Smartphones and tablets combined to account for 5.5% of computer hardware, 5.6% of consumer electronics, and 4.4% of consumer packaged goods sales online; and
- Of those categories, tablets accounted for a greater share of e-commerce sales than smartphones in only one, consumer electronics (2.9% and 2.6%, respectively).
Separately, comScore provides more data in a related blog post, showing that in June, 1 in 3 monthly visitors to the average digital retailer website came exclusively from a mobile platform. In fact, retail had a stronger penetration among tablets (91%) and smartphones (90%) than desktop computers (78%), per the researchers.
Also of note: during June, 56% of tablet retail time was spent with mobile browsers rather than applications. By contrast, smartphone owners spent only 22% of their retail category time with mobile browsers. Smartphone and tablet behaviors differed by retail sub-category, too. For example, tablet owners were far more likely to browse apparel and home furnishings categories than desktop users, while smartphone owners were less likely to browse those categories.
