Following £64-million spent through buyer app in the UK last year
Following £64-million spent through buyer app in the UK last year
Leading e-commerce site, eBay is expanding its mobile reach as its fastest growing channel, having seen £64 million worth of goods purchased from its first eBay ‘app’ in 2009.
Brits are embracing mobile shopping faster than their European counterparts, according to new data also released today by eBay.
Mobile driving sales growth
Despite the recession, over the last year m-commerce has accounted for nearly £123-million worth of goods sold in the UK and this market is predicted to double in the next three years to £275 million. UK shoppers have been the fastest European nation to adopt the speed and convenience of m-commerce with more goods purchased through the eBay app than anywhere else in the continent, the online marketplace giant stated.
In fact, it said Brits bought more items through the app in one month than French consumers purchased in the whole of 2009.
The data is revealed as eBay launches its popular buyer app on three new mobile platforms in Europe – Blackberry from Research In Motion (RIM); Android from Google and Apple’s iPad, in addition to a dedicated seller app, the next iteration in its suite of smart phone applications, enabling people to buy and sell anytime, anyplace and anywhere.
Last week eBay further cemented its position as global m-commerce leaders through the acquisition of RedLaser, another popular m-commerce app in the app store. Already incorporated into its new seller app, the RedLaser barcode scanning technology enables users to scan product barcodes with their iPhone camera and then compare prices online to find the best deal.
Positioned in the driving seat
Clare Gilmartin, managing director of eBay UK, said: “Ten years ago eBay was the first to realise the potential of e-commerce and today eBay is leading the m-commerce revolution. We are constantly innovating to deliver greater choice and flexibility. We have embraced the opportunities of mobile commerce faster and more successfully than our competitors and are now driving the mobile retailing market.
“Last week we announced our acquisition of RedLaser, to improve the buying and selling experience for eBay customers, and our first dedicated seller app, provides eBay sellers with virtually instantaneous access to a global market from their mobile phone.
“People live increasingly busy lives so developing new channels and interoperable platforms which give our customers a better experience and exciting new ways to sell and shop is what eBay is all about and why we continue to be the number one place to shop.”
Additional insight from the firm revealed that UK shoppers account for approximately 65% of the items bought through the eBay app across Europe. While, in the UK, on average an item has been bought through the eBay app every 12 seconds, Germany follows closely behind with a purchase every 35 seconds.
Shopping habits revealed
Four times as many men have bought goods from eBay via their mobile compared to women. And its figures showed the 26 – 30 age group have adopted mobile shopping most quickly. In addition, the most popular items bought in the UK are fashion items (21% of sales) products closely followed by technology goods (14.5%) and collectible goods (12.7%).
Globally, eBay also reported that more than £408 million worth of goods were sold through the eBay buyer app by the end of 2009, a 200% increase over 2008, contributing to mobile gross merchandise volume (i.e. value of goods sold) that is expected to generate £1.02bn for eBay in 2010.
Malcolm Pinkerton, senior analyst at Verdict Research, commented: “M-commerce revenues are growing at a rapid rate. Shoppers are becoming increasingly sophisticated, already using their mobiles to research products and compare prices when out shopping. There are only a handful of retailers that have properly caught on and are catering for m-commerce shoppers.As consumer affiliation with m-commerce increases, retailers will need to decide if they’re going to be pioneers in the market and meet consumer expectations, or wait and risk being behind the curve as many were with e-commerce.
“If correctly implemented, m-commerce will not only ensure the needs of tomorrow’s shoppers are met today, but also that growth is maximised across all channels. eBay’s success is due to the fact that it has designed the mobile optimised site and in conjunction a smartphone application making the process very easy to use for mobile customers. The approach taken by eBay should be a lesson to other retailers as to the potential of m-commerce.”
