M-Commerce Is Accentuating the Value of the Store

As mobile devices reach for a dominant share of e-commerce, the arrival of m-commerce also is accentuating the value of bricks-and-mortar stores.

“Some of the most interesting data that’s come out of the holiday shopping season so far is that 54% of the [Black Friday] sales were from mobile devices, which is an all-time high,” Brandon Isner, CBRE’s Head of Retail Research, told GlobeSt.com.

Mobile devices quickly are becoming primary drivers for e-commerce, which in turn is changing the way people approach e-commerce, Isner said, in a telephone interview from ICSC New York.

“The way that people engage e-commerce is changing. The more we see mobile devices become a dominant share of e-commerce, the more that’s going to accentuate the value of the store,” Isner said.

“People are thinking of their device as more of an in-store tool. Mobile devices generate a lot of click-and-collect sales,” he added.

Click-and-collect sales are skyrocketing as mobile devices are used for in-store investigation of products. The latest data is validating a projection Isner made to GlobeSt.com in March 2023, when he said m-commerce would become the dominant form of e-commerce within the next three years.

“M-commerce is the present and future of e-commerce,” Isner told us. “The convenience of being able to connect to a retailer’s supply chain network while having coffee at an outdoor café is truly a benefit to the consumer. Retailers who aren’t strategizing how they will cultivate this activity for their business will be left behind.”

According to Statista, global mobile e-commerce sales reached $2.2 trillion in 2023 and now make up 60 percent of all e-commerce sales around the world. The share of m-commerce in all e-commerce has been on a steady climb, up from 56% in 2018 to an expected 62% in 2027.

In 2027, Statista analysts expect $3.4 trillion of mobile e-commerce sales, more than four times the amount generated in 2018.

Currently, click-and-collect contributes to 9.1% of all retail e-commerce sales, with US buyers spending $113B in 2023 on click-and-collect purchases. Click-and-collect sales are expected to reach $150B by 2025, according to onlinedasher.com.

According to this compiler of click-and-collect statistics, 34% of retailers have reported an increase in in-store sales since implementing click-and-collect.

An estimated 67% of click-and-collect customers who pick up their orders in-store purchase additional items; click-and-collect shoppers also visit stores 2.4 times more frequently than other shoppers. The survey indicated that 23% of online shoppers prefer click-and-collect to home delivery.