Mobile Commerce Figures Highlight Increase in Usage

We’ve all heard of e-commerce, a term related to buying and selling products and services via the Internet, but what about mobile commerce? Well, in effect, this is the same process as above, although it’s conducted via a mobile device or a Personal Digital Assistant (PDA).

Today we find ourselves using our mobile phones to connect to the Internet and carry out a number of activities; the Blackberry and the iPhone are some of the more common types on the market. Whether it’s to purchase tickets, look for news, access emails, shop, search, bank, or access media files, the mobile has become a growing platform which shows a significant change in user habits and how we use the Internet on a daily basis.

A recent study by comScore and Telefonica Germany, titled Connected Europe – How Smartphones and Tablets are Shifting Media Consumption, found that during October 2011, computers made up 95.1% of all browser based page views in the EU5 (UK, France, Germany, Italy and Spain). Mobile devices made up 3.2% of all of the traffic during this time, and for the 4.9% of traffic not generated via a computer, tablets accounted for more than one in four page views.

The most interesting figure though relates to the increasing usage of the Internet via mobiles, which is positive news for mobile commerce.  75% of smartphone users took to their mobile devices to view media content, an increase of 62% compared to the previous year. That’s just one year where the increase was improved by well over half of the original figure, which makes you wonder what the change will be in the coming year.

There are a number of devices that enable you to connect to the Internet today such as the iPhone, Blackberry, Android devices and other smartphones, as well as tablets such as the iPad. Among all of these devices, Apple’s iOS has the greatest share of devices connected to the Internet with a 30% proportion. Retail was one of the most engaged in activities for those with smartphones in the EU5, with 13.6 million people accessing a shopping site, showing that the smartphone is having a dramatic impact in revolutionising shopping habits in the retail industry. With the speed and configuration of mobile Internet access set to improve, the current trends for Internet usage look set to increase even further in 2012.

As we watch the changing technological habits of users, and view the increase in mobile usage figures, people need to be aware of the potential market that mobile SEO can attract. If you have a website but have not yet targeted it towards the mobile market, then now is the time to get this in place. Mobile commerce gives people the ability to search and find local businesses on the move, gaining instant access to the information that they require. These above figures show a dramatic rise in how people are using technology to engage with the Internet, and so they should not be ignored.

People will tell you that you need to do all you can in SEO to improve your business, but you can’t deny what the statistics show. Therefore, because of these figures and the changing browsing trends, which are likely to become even more apparent in 2012, it’s important to move with technology and get mobile SEO in place for your business today. Failing to do so can make you lose out on a large number of potential customers that could find out about your business via mobile search.