Hamburg-based business intelligence company yStats.com has published a new report, “Europe M-Commerce Snapshot 2015”, which shows that M-Commerce is recording high double and even triple digit growth rates, overtaking the overall online retail market in sales growth. Smartphones and tablets are the favorite mobile devices to use in M-Commerce, with tablets generating larger sales even though their frequency of usage is similar. Another important global trend is that apps are preferred over mobile browsers for mobile shopping.
Europe is the global leader in terms of mobile broadband penetration, though by mobile shopper penetration on online buyers it was behind such leaders as Asia-Pacific and the Middle East and Africa. One-third of online shoppers in Europe used their mobile phones to shop last year.
In the UK, the share of M-Commerce sales via smartphones was below that of tablets in 2014 and is forecasted to decrease further in the coming years. Both in Germany and France the share of M-Commerce was a small double-digit figure, and mobile shopper penetration on online shoppers in these two countries was also similar. Meanwhile, both in Russia and in Italy M-Commerce sales were estimated to double last year, while in Spain they more than tripled. In Poland and Turkey, smartphones were ahead of tablets in share of online shoppers using the device to make purchases over the Internet.
Europe-based international E-Commerce merchants take part in the mobile commerce boom. Cnova, a public E-Commerce company controlled by the French Casino Group, saw a double-digit share of gross merchandise value of its Cdiscount unit coming from mobile in the last quarter of 2014, an increase of over 50% compared to a year ago. Meanwhile, another prominent international player, Germany–based Otto Group, announced investment of a double-digit million Euro figure in tech startups, including those working in the mobile field.
