Spend via mobile and tablets ‘set to soar’

Spending via mobile phones and tablets will be worth over £23 billion by 2018, according to a survey of 10,000 online shoppers by Verdict.

Currently worth around £7.9 billion per year, tablet proliferation is expected to continue to grow rapidly. 38 per cent of online shoppers research goods instore prior to purchasing online.

“Cannibalisation of spend has had a major impact in market sizes as mobile phones and tablets have become more mainstream shopping devices, often replacing desktops and laptops”, explains Verdict Analyst Matthew Rubin.

“Mobile phone spend has grown rapidly, though it remains relatively small, while tablet spend has grown from nothing to almost twice the size of mobile phone spend in just the two years to 2012, and that trend has continued into 2013.”

“This appears to be a major concern for retailers with a physical presence” said Rubin, “however, with only seven per cent of mobile phone shoppers completing transactions in a store; there is still a major opportunity to convince them to make the transaction through the store itself or through its own website. This requires strong customer service and engagement, but with 57 per cent of online shoppers comparing prices between websites, it is also essential that retailers with homogenous products match or come close to pureplay pricing.”