Juniper: Mobile Retail Purchases Set to Explode by 2018

Juniper Mobile Retail Purchases Set to Explode by 2018Within five years, Juniper Research projects in a new report published Tuesday, mobile retail purchases will exceed $700 billion.

Following a buoyant 2013 holiday shopping season for mCommerce, the new report from Juniper isn’t difficult to believe.

The five-year jump in retail purchases totally north of $7000 billion yearly will represent 30% of all eRetail by that time. This compares with mobile retail spend of $182 billion last year, when mobile accounted for just 15% of eRetail.

Not surprisingly, today’s leading retailers are increasingly developing strategies built around mobile, using it as a “hub” facilitating payment, product discovery and customer retention.

The report also highlighted the increasing trend towards ‘showrooming’, where consumers examine retailer products in-store while simultaneously browsing on their mobiles to compare prices online. It argued that retailers need to adapt their strategies to incorporate this activity, by deploying tablets equipped with mPOS (mobile Point of Sale) capability throughout the store, while also introducing a price match option.

According to report author Dr Windsor Holden, “This means that not only is the retailer proactively offering the consumer the opportunity to price check in-store, but that the purchase can be made immediately, without having to queue elsewhere in the store.”