Mobile Commerce Set to Grow Rapidly

Although not an immediate hit, success is now within reach for mobile commerce. A study conducted by Yahoo! and Nielsen collected information from US mobile internet users about their current and estimated future mobile usage for accessing shopping information.

Currently, only 21 percent users use mobiles to access shopping information for categories like dining, digital content for mobiles, and entertainment items and content, but the usage is likely to rise up to 73 percent in all these categories in near future. Currently, PCs are mainly used for accessing shopping information in all categories but results of the study indicate that mobile usage for this purpose is likely to overtake PC usage in many categories. The rise in mobile usage is more likely in some categories like search for digital content for handsets as it has a clear mobile connection. The rise in mobile usage is also very likely for categories like dining as these categories can benefit from a mobile’s special capabilities.

Popularity of dining related mobile activities was proved by the survey. 75 percent of survey respondents used restaurant locator, 73 percent people used mobile search, 56 percent people used mobiles to decide where to eat, 56 percent people looked up a menu using mobile and 39% people clicked to call a restaurant. In the next few years, the use of mobile phones for travel related activities is also likely to be more compared to PCs  as people find use of mobiles more convenient to stay connected during a trip. As information in all categories is likely to get more mobile in future, marketers will benefit by ensuring that their website design is optimized for mobile phones.