All manner of Internet companies and brick-and-mortar retailers are chasing the rapidly expanding mobile commerce market. To understand why, just take a look at the growth dynamics projected through 2016 in this chart from
Statista:
Here are five data points that underscore why this sector will be of keen interest to tech investors in the years ahead.
1) A comScore study published last fall shows that nearly 86 million consumers visited a retail destination via a mobile browser or app on their smartphones. That works out to about four in every five smartphone user in the U.S.
2) Amazon (AMZN) led the pack with 49.6 million in monthly unique mobile visitors followed by eBay (EBAY), Apple (AAPL), Wal-Mart (WMT), Target (TGT) and Best Buy (BBY) as of July 2012, according to the same study.
3) Tablet owners are more active in mobile commerce than smartphone users, according to this post on CNBC's Stock Blog. And the Statista data shows tablet-generated mobile purchases growing faster than smartphone initiated sales through 2016.
4) Developers have come forward with a critical mass of cool and interesting mobile shopping apps such as AisleBuyer, Google Shopper and Shopkick. Check out this excellent post from ScreenMedia daily on the 10 mobile commerce apps rocking the retail world.
5) Guess which brick-and-mortar retailer has emerged as a real innovator in the mobile commerce space? It's Wal-Mart, Technorati reports, citing a study by the National Retail Federation. Wal-Mart was cited for its development of apps, push notifications and social media.
Covestor Ltd. is a registered investment advisor. Covestor licenses investment strategies from its Model Managers to establish investment models. The commentary here is provided as general and impersonal information and should not be construed as recommendations or advice. Information from Model Managers and third-party sources deemed to be reliable but not guaranteed. Past performance is no guarantee of future results. Transaction histories for Covestor models available upon request. Additional important disclosures available at http://site.covestor.com/help/disclosures. For information about Covestor and its services, go to http://covestor.com or contact Covestor Client Services at (866) 825-3005, x703.