The Drum Awards for Marketing - Extended Deadline

-d -h -min -sec

M-commerce Tablets Smartphone

West behind east for m-commerce adoption, according to global Rakuten survey

Author

By The Drum Team, Editorial

September 27, 2012 | 3 min read

Countries in the far east are more likely than their western counterparts to shop via their mobile device, according to research from Rakuten.

The global survey into mobile commerce trends found that 15 per cent of Indonesians and 13 per cent of Thais have no qualms shopping via their mobile device, in comparison to eight per cent of Americans and eight per cent of people from the UK.

While the main motivation of the 12,000 respondents globally for choosing to shop on a PC or laptop rather than a mobile device was the perception that mobile provides an inferior shopping experience, mobile security was also a concern. In Europe, people from the UK were most worried about mobile security, with 27 per cent stating this was their biggest concern with mobile shopping, compared to 14 per cent of Italians and Japanese.

The survey found that Thailand came top for m-commerce tablet adoption, with 35 per cent of those surveyed using their tablets for shopping, in comparison with 14 per cent of UK respondents and 18 per cent of respondents in Italy.

The UK was also found to be behind Spain and Italy for social shopping, with only a quarter of those surveyed stating they had shared a product on social media, compared to 50 per cent and 47 per cent of respondents in Spain and Italy respectively.

Adam Stewart, marketing director, Rakuten’s Play.com commented on the insights for the UK market: “At Rakuten’s Play.com we have seen a nearly 120 per cent increase in traffic from mobile and tablet devices over the last 12 months; however there is still a gap between browsing and buying that we need to bridge. As an industry we need to build consumer confidence in mobile shopping platforms, by refining the shopping experience online, offering more mobile tailored offers to incentivise purchase and ensure mobile payments are secure, smooth and hassle free.”

Smartphone image via Shutterstock

M-commerce Tablets Smartphone

More from M-commerce

View all

Trending

Industry insights

View all
Add your own content +