An explosion in mobile commerce is among the most powerful influences on ecommerce in Western Europe.
As more consumers use smartphones and tablets, online sales have exploded, according to a new eMarketer report, “Western Europe B2C Ecommerce Trends: Omnichannel Is the Watchword as Markets Gain Sophistication.”
According to comScore MobiLens, between January and March 2014, 24 percent of smartphone users in the EU-5 accessed retail websites, representing a substantial year-on-year growth of 42 percent.
In Spain and Italy, where ecommerce development has been depressed by wider economic gloom for several years, annual growth in retail site visits still were pegged at 50 percent and 73 percent, respectively.
comScore also calculated that the number of EU-5 residents buying products via a mobile device was 31.8 million between June and August 2013, a gain of 43 percent from a comparable period in 2012.
It’s time for retailers there to get with the program.
An October 2013 survey by Edgar, Dunn & Company (EDC) found that more than three-quarters of retailers in France, Germany, Spain, and the UK already sold via the internet and through physical stores. But fewer than 40 percent had created a mobile app or website.
There’s definitely a time lag between new consumer behaviors and retailers’ efforts to provide for them.
“Shoppers can change their habits from one week to the next, while retailers may need months or years to respond,” according to the story on the survey in eMarketer.
