This week, Gartner issued a new report pointing to how the “rampant interest” in mobile payments among U.S. consumers will impact online shopping in the coming years.
Looking at strong growth patterns in mobile commerce, Gartner predicts that by 2017, U.S. customers’ mobile engagement behavior will drive domestic mobile commerce revenue to 50 percent of U.S. digital commerce revenue.
A recent Gartner survey found that mobile commerce currently generates 22 percent of digital commerce revenue.
“Some sectors will migrate more quickly than others to accepting mobile payments and promoting mobile commerce,” said Jennifer Polk, research director at Gartner.
“For example,” Polk posits, “big-box retailers may not need to move as quickly as other industries because the in-store experience is still a critical part of their value proposition and the customer experience, making digital and mobile commerce a smaller portion of their overall revenue. However, new credit card standards will cause a shift in liability for fraudulent transactions in 2015, requiring retailers to update their point-of-sale systems for safer credit card transactions. This opens the door for point-of-updates to also accept mobile payment.”
The bottom line? Marketers with digital and mobile commerce initiatives “need to focus” on encouraging the development of cross-functional teams — including IT, sales, customer support and legal — to create seamless path-to-purchase experiences, and postpurchase relationships with consumers who are increasingly using mobile devices to research and purchase products and services.
