2013 holiday season lost out on $16 billion in mobile sales

According to a new report, Mcommerce lost out on $16 billion this holiday season.

This last holiday season saw Ecommerce reach new heights, and was the most lucrative to date. Every holiday sales day in 2013 outperformed its predecessor. The holiday season was so successful, the US postal service and UPS couldn't deliver the immense amount of online orders on time. When looking at the reports, every aspect of online shopping grew, most notably Payments Payments One of the bases of mediums of exchange in the modern world, a payment constitutes the transfer of a legal currency or equivalent from one party in exchange for goods or services to another entity. The payments industry has become a fixture of modern commerce, though the players involved and means of exchange have dramatically shifted over time.In particular, a party making a payment is referred to as a payer, with the payee reflecting the individual or entity receiving the payment. Most commonl One of the bases of mediums of exchange in the modern world, a payment constitutes the transfer of a legal currency or equivalent from one party in exchange for goods or services to another entity. The payments industry has become a fixture of modern commerce, though the players involved and means of exchange have dramatically shifted over time.In particular, a party making a payment is referred to as a payer, with the payee reflecting the individual or entity receiving the payment. Most commonl Read this Term made through mobile devices.

IBM Digital Analytics report for Q4 2013 showed mobile devices being responsible for over 16% of online holiday sales, but could that percentage have been higher? According to a new report by Jumio data, online stores lost out to over $16 billion in mobile sales this last holiday season, mainly due to security concerns and payment friction issues.

"On the whole, retailers with mobile apps have done a remarkable job with most aspects of their mobile shopping experience and this season's numbers certainly show that. However, checkout pages and payment methods have not kept pace with what smartphone devices and services can do today to streamline those processes. This cost the industry billions of dollars this holiday season. Good news is that we expect that number to diminish as new technologies take root,” said Daniel Mattes, founder and CEO, Jumio.

Delving into Jumio’s report we are able to see more of the reasons why cart abandonment was so high this year on mobile devices. 51% of mobile shoppers claimed they abandoned their cart because of security concerns stating their card info did not feel “safe” on a mobile device. 47% of mobile shoppers mentioned payment friction issues, with payment gateways and websites not being fully compatible with their devices. 41% abandoned their cart deeming the payment process on mobile devices to be too difficult, with entering payment and cardholder info into small fields with a mobile keyboard being a tedious task. Lastly, 23% abandoned their cart because the payment simply did not go through on their mobile device.

Jumio’s report proves that even if mobile sales are up, not everyone is fully optimizing their Ecommerce platform for Mcommerce transactions. Supporting mobile platforms should not be considered as a gimmick or an added value add-on, as smartphones and tablets are now a viable channel for online shopping. With PCs and laptops losing more and more market share to smartphones and tablets, being mobile compatible will make you available to your customer base who are rapidly shifting to mobile devices for their online needs.

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