A new report from Juniper Research reveals that the digital commerce market (the buying and selling of products and services over the Internet) will double in growth from the more than $4 billion a year industry it is today to more than $8 billion.
According to research author Lauren Foye, “The digital commerce market as a whole is seeing an ever increasing propensity toward an omni-channel approach, and this extends to e-commerce where the mobile and tablet platform is seeing increased use toward the purchasing of physical goods, either for delivery or collection.â€
“In addition, global online banking users as a proportion of banked individuals are forecast to cross the 50% mark in 2016.â€
[Related: Attention Walmart Shoppers: Introducing Walmart Pay]
The report cites three main factors for this stupendous growth:
- Digital Banking
- Remote Digital Goods
- Remote Physical Goods
Online digital commerce events that have essentially become tradition, such as Cyber Monday, have boosted e-commerce profits. In fact, 2015 was a record year for Cyber Monday sales, the report notes.
Other factors contributing to the explosion in digital commerce are continued transition to digital formats, and the rise in streamed subscription services.
Getting ready to launch an e-commerce based tech startup? The report contains some valuable insight for you:
- More consumers prefer an end-to-end mobile ticketing process, with tickets purchased, delivered and validated using a mobile device or an app. A recent survey conducted in the UK found that 25% of events ticket buyers received ‘Print-at-home’ e-tickets while only 5% received mobile or in-app tickets, but nearly 20% of respondents confirmed they ‘would have preferred mobile or in-app tickets.
- Traffic and purchase levels were significantly higher on iOS devices than Android devices, more than 2 times and 4 times, respectively.
- The migration of consumers to mobile devices has led some retailers to redesign their websites from a ‘mobile first’ perspective.
- There is evidence of increased consumer confidence in, and willingness to engage with, the mobile device as both a content browsing and payment mechanism. (For example, Â Domino’s, mobile accounted for 44.2% of online checkouts in 2014, up from 30.9% of online checkouts in 2013; this represented 31% of all sales)
- The use of mobile devices to make monetary transfers, such as international remittances, is expected to have a considerable lead over other market sectors by 2020.
- The value of mobile NFC (Near Field Communications) payments will display significant growth, increasing by over 400% between 2016 and 2020.
- There is increasing evidence that while tablets and smartphones are both heavily used for browsing, consumers are far more likely to make their purchases on tablets.