eBay Predicts Mobile Sales of $8billion in 2012
Mobile spending has been increasing rapidly over the last year and various sources predict that in 2012 mobile and tablet shopping is going to double in growth. In December 2011 alone, IBM reported that mobile shopping grew by 186.5% in the UK.
eBay have announced its own prediction for 2012 – saying that it is expecting to see around $8billion worth of sales completed on mobiles.
This comes as Ofcom is proposing to improve the 4G mobile spectrum in the UK. eBay and other online retailers put pressure on Ofcom in 2011 to improve network speeds as they had a strong case showing mobile shopping could help boost the economy, but they were hindered by slow network speeds which could put users off. Ofcom have since taken this advice on board and are planning a high speed 4G network to make it much easier for mobile shoppers to use websites and make purchases.
aBay’s UK Retail Director welcomed this news, saying, “We know that the potential for mobile shopping is huge – but only if the infrastructure is there to make it work smoothly for consumers. This year, we are predicting global sales of $8 billion via mobile on eBay alone.
“According to our research, mobile retail will be worth a massive £19 billion to the UK economy by 2021. A high speed 4G network will make it easier for consumers to shop via their mobile and for retailers to grow mobile sales.”
2012 is certainly going to be a year which makes mobile shopping an important part of online sales – so if you don’t yet have a mobile optimised website, get in touch with Syncro today. The potential market is enormous and you don’t want to miss out on potential sales, just because your website is difficult to use on a mobile but your competitor’s isn’t.
