Survey Shows Social, Mobile Commerce on the Rise
Global ecommerce company Digital River released findings of a survey about international ecommerce growth opportunities, trends, challenges and areas for improvement. The interview-style study was conducted by independent market research company Vanson Bourne, and included 250 senior level decision makers from software, gaming, and consumer electronics companies doing at least $250m annually in global revenue.
Among other findings, social and mobile commerce channels were set to expand over the next 24 months. With some senior decision makers stating that they believe the two commerce channels would also generate the most revenue, behind only transactional websites and app stores. Although most of the participants think that mobile will outpace social commerce in two years' time, the overall trend is still that social commerce will be a valuable channel in terms of ROI and overall revenue generation moving forward.
“The survey reaffirms what we have been seeing for some time – that e-commerce will increasing shift to a multi-channel approach for commerce. Companies are looking for more ways to connect directly with their customers and offer them more choices when it comes to purchasing online – whether that be mobile, social, in app, subscriptions or other options,” said Joel Ronning, Digital River’s CEO. “The survey also pointed out the need for companies to reassess their global commerce readiness. Local is the new global today. We were surprised to see how many companies are still not vested in a fully localized online strategy. The growing generation of customers shopping online and across borders want to be greeted in their native dialect by a company that understands their local culture and norms. The ability to interact with the customer at this level, anytime and on any device is critically important to success in today’s online market.”
What Online Sales Channels Are Being Used Today?
Consistent with the overall trend of increased channels to reach an increasingly savvy, finicky and informed consumer, companies say they are currently using multiple touch points. 80% are using eCommerce websites, followed by social commerce (55%), app stores (50%), in-product commerce (50%), subscription sales (48%), and mobile commerce (48%). And even though mobile commerce is only being used by 48% of the large companies surveyed, 46% said they plan to expand their commerce strategies to include mobile over the next 2 years.
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