March 5, 2014, 2:42 PM

Android tablets outsell iPads: So

what?
BY BILL SIWICKI Editor, Mobile
For retailers, news that Android tablets outsold iPads for the first time
in 2013 is not very significant. Data provided exclusively to Internet
Retailer by eight web merchants show that consumers who use iPads
are still browsing and buying in 2014 far more than those using Android
devices.

Apple Inc.’s iPad tablet computer has dominated the tablet market since it was
introduced in 2010. However, new data from technology research firm Gartner Inc.
shows that in late 2013, tablets running Google Inc.’s Android mobile operating system
for the first time outsold iPads. In fact, tallying up worldwide tablet sales for the entirety
of last year, Android tablets accounted for 61.9% of tablets sold, iPads 36.0%,
Microsoft Corp.’s Windows 2.1%, and other mobile operating systems less than 0.1%,
Gartner says. By sharp contrast, at the end of 2012, the iPad accounted for 52.8% of
worldwide tablet sales, Android 45.8%, Windows 1.0%, and other 0.4%.

So what does this shift in tablet market share mean for retailers and mobile
commerce? Not much, retailers and mobile experts say, because consumers who use
iPads browse and buy far more than those using other tablets. This follows the exact
same pattern that’s developed with smartphones: Android phones have a significant
lead in market share, yet Apple iPhone users account for a gigantic majority of
browsing and buying.

Today, eight retailers dug into their analytics exclusively for Internet Retailer, providing
a 2014 year-to-date look at m-commerce via tablet. Keep in mind, the following tablet
shopping figures are for an approximately two-month period following a year in which,
according to Gartner, 61.9% of tablets sold were Android devices and 36.0% iPads:

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* At web-only retailer eBags Inc., No. 163 in the 2014 Internet Retailer Mobile 500,
tablets account for 17% of total web traffic. The tablet traffic breakdown is iPad 86%,
Android 13% and other 1%, says Peter Cobb, co-founder. The tablet sales breakdown
is iPad 88%, Android 11% and other 1%.

* At graphic wall decorations e-retailer Fathead LLC, No. 320 in the Mobile 500, the
tablet traffic breakdown is iPad 78%, Android 21% and other 1%, says Michael Layne,
director of Internet marketing. The tablet sales breakdown is iPad 89%, Android 10%
and other 1%.

* At contacts and eyeglasses e-retailer Coastal Contacts Inc., No. 147 in the Mobile
500, traffic from iPads is three times traffic from Android tablets, says Braden
Hoeppner, chief marketing officer. The conversion rate on iPads is 10% greater than
the rate on Android tablets.

* At apparel and accessories e-retailer Beyond The Rack, No. 59 in the Mobile 500,
iPads generate 15.2% of total web traffic and 17.6% of total web sales while Android
tablets generate only 2.8% of traffic and 2.2% of sales, reports Richard Cohene,
director of marketing.

* At home improvement e-retailer CPO Commerce Inc., the tablet traffic breakdown
is iPad 80%, Android 19% and other 1%, while the tablet sales breakdown is iPad
85%, Android 14% and other 1%, says Jeff Emmons, vice president of e-commerce.

* At apparel merchant Dungarees.net, No. 378 in the Mobile 500, 12% of total web
traffic and 9% of total web sales stem from tablets, says Darren Baldwin, e-commerce
manager. The tablet traffic breakdown is iPad 85.9% and other tablets (mostly
Android) 14.1%. The tablet sales breakdown is iPad 90.4% and other tablets (mostly
Android) 9.6%. Baldwin also reveals that the conversion rate for iPad shoppers is
5.04%, considerably higher than the 3.45% rate for shoppers on other tablets (mostly
Android).

* At JackThreads.com, No. 88 in the Mobile 500, the tablet traffic breakdown at the
merchant, which sells via flash sales and traditional methods, is iPads 82.0%, Android
17.9% and other tablets 0.1%, says Jason Ross, CEO and founder. The tablet
transactions breakdown is iPads 87.0% and Android 13.0%.

* At Nordstrom’s HauteLook, iPad shoppers account for more than 80% of tablet
traffic and sales, says Mark Geller, head of mobile.

Further, yesterday Affiliate Window, which operates affiliate networks in the U.S. and
the U.K., released data on mobile commerce activity on its networks in February 2014.
75.3% of tablet traffic last month stemmed from iPads while 24.7% came from Android
tablets, Affiliate Window reports. More important, 85.2% of sales on tablets occurred
on iPads while 14.8% occurred on Android tablets. Shoppers using iPads convert at a
much higher rate than shoppers on Android tablets, and spend significantly more,
Affiliate Window says. Affiliate Window says last month it averaged about 20,000
orders a day on mobile devices (smartphones and tablets combined), and that 11,000
of those daily orders, 55%, were placed on iPads.

“The State of Mobile Advertising: Q4 2013,” a recent report from the Opera
Mediaworks worldwide mobile advertising network, offers another type of comparison
between iPad users and Android tablet users. 10.6% of total traffic generated by ads
on the mobile network in the final quarter last year occurred on iPads while only 1.9%
of traffic came from Android tablets, Opera Mediaworks reports. And 12.7% of revenue
generated by mobile ads is attributable to iPad users while only 1.7% is attributable to
Android tablet users.

At least part of the explanation for why iPad shoppers are more lucrative is that they
have more money. 41.3% of iPad users live in a household making more than
$100,000 a year, according to web and mobile measurement firm comScore Inc.’s
January 2014 TabLens data. Only 26.7% of Android tablet users live in such a
household.

And while tablets running the Android mobile operating system do indeed dominate
tablet market share when measured by operating system, the iPad, by far, dominates
tablet market share when measured by manufacturer, Gartner says. 36.0% of tablets
sold in 2013 were from Apple (the iPad Air, the iPad and the iPad Mini). Apple’s closest
competitor, Samsung, racked up 19.1% of sales.

April 21, 2014, 10:31 AM

Mobile commerce is critical to

Internet retailing’s future
BY BILL SIWICKI Editor, Mobile

U.S. m-commerce sales on tablets are soaring while the influence of

smartphones on purchases grows, new data from research firm
eMarketer show. By 2018, purchases on tablets and mobile phones will
account for 27% of all online sales, or $133 billion.

Mobile commerce is no longer a nifty sideshow—it’s a web retailing fundamental that’s

becoming increasingly critical to the future of e-commerce, new data from research firm
eMarketer show.
U.S. retail mobile commerce sales (on smartphones and tablets, including sales of digital
goods but excluding sales of travel services and event and movie tickets) will soar from $42.13
billion in 2013 (16.0% of total web sales of $263.31 billion) to $132.69 billion in 2018 (27.0%
of $491.44 billion), eMarketer says.

Mobile commerce can be looked at broadly and narrowly, says Yoram Wurmser, retail and e-
commerce analyst at eMarketer.

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“In the narrow sense of capturing sales, tablets will make up the bulk of new sales and will
widen an already big lead over smartphones,” Wurmser says. “In 2014, eMarketer expects
$38.02 billion in sales on tablets compared to $18.49 billion on smartphones; this already
exceeds a 2-to-1 ratio. By 2018, 72.6% of m-commerce will take place on tablets, totaling
$96.31 billion. We project that commerce via smartphones will also increase quickly, but not
as quickly, reaching $34.63 billion in 2018. Overall, U.S. tablet penetration will rise from 46.2%
of the population in 2014 to 52.1% in 2018.”

Looking at mobile commerce in a broader sense, smartphones are more pervasive than
tablets among today’s online and in-store shoppers, Wurmser says.

“In 2014, 124.8 million U.S.consumers will shop on a smartphone, representing 63.5% of
digital shoppers, according to our forecast,” he says. “By 2018, we project there will be 181.5
million smartphone shoppers, representing 84.4% of digital shoppers. While there are fewer
tablet shoppers in the U.S., more tablet shoppers end up buying, and transaction volume is
typically lower on smartphones than it is on tablets, which accounts for the difference in m-
commerce sales between the two devices.”

But mobile commerce is about more than just sales made on smartphones and tablets. It’s
also about how consumers use smartphones and tablets to assist with purchases ultimately
made online on a PC or in-store.

“Mobile is very important not only in context with direct sales via mobile devices, but also
working in conjunction with other channels,” Wurmser says. “A good portion of m-commerce
growth is coming from tablets, but smartphones are highly influencing the shopping process,
both online and in-store. Also keep in mind that eMarketer’s 2018 projection that mobile will
account for 27% of total e-commerce sales is calculated off a much higher base of total e-
commerce sales, which will continue to grow at an annual clip above 10% for the foreseeable
future. So both e-commerce and m-commerce are growing quite significantly.”

Following are eMarketer’s new projections for mobile commerce in the years ahead, including
year, mobile sales in billions, percent growth, and percent of total web sales:

 2014, $57.79, 37.2%, 19.0%.

 2015, $76.41, 32.2%, 22.0%.
 2016, $98.12, 28.4%, 25.0%.
 2017, $114.50, 16.7%, 26.0%.
 2018, $132.69, 15.9%, 27.0%.

Worldwide, mobile commerce sales will account for almost half of total web sales by 2018,
according to international investment bank The Goldman Sachs Group Inc. That’s in large part
because, compared with the U.S., a much higher percentage of Internet users in developing
countries with huge populations access the Internet via mobile devices.

U.S. mobile travel sales will reach $26.14 billion in 2014, 18.0% of total online travel sales,
eMarketer predicts.U.S.mobile travel sales will grow to $66.69 billion in 2018, 37.0% of total
online travel sales.

Follow Bill Siwicki, managing editor, mobile commerce, Internet Retailer, and his coverage of
the mobile commerce market at @IRmcommerce.

April 28, 2014, 1:02 PM

E-commerce and m-commerce: The

next five years
Mobile Commerce 0 comments

BY BILL SIWICKI Editor, Mobile

As shopping on smartphones and tablets becomes routine for
consumers and the importance of home desktop computers fades,
retailers will need to focus more on a consumer's location and context
and less on the type of device a consumer is using, experts predict.
Mobility, both outside and inside the home, will remain key, experts
say. But what about 'the Internet of Things'?

During the next five years, mobile commerce will become even more influential than it
is today. Desktop PC use will continue to drop while PC makers try making PCs and
laptops function more like touchscreen mobile devices, consumers will start to buy
wearable computers (including smartwatches and smartglasses), and consumers also
will begin buying new web-connected devices for the home and car that combined are
known as the "Internet of Things."

As a result, retailers will need to shift their focus from the type of device a consumer
uses (mobile or stationary) to a consumer's location and context, Internet retailing
experts predict. And because context will be key at a time when mobile devices come
to dominate the way consumers interact with the web, knowing the best ways to serve
customers on smartphones and tablets will remain a strategic priority for retailers,
experts say. 55% of time spent with online retail today occurs on smartphones and
tablets—imagine what that figure will be in five years.

In five years, e-commerce on desktops and laptops will still exist, and m-commerce on
smartphones and tablets will still exist, but to consumers, online shopping will mean
researching and buying wherever they may be on whatever device is best suited to
the moment or whatever device is simply handy, says Jeff Schueler, president of
Usability Sciences Corp., an e-commerce and m-commerce research and consulting
firm.

"In five years e-commerce and m-commerce will become 'contextual commerce,'"
Schueler says. "The consumer will make a purchase in whatever situation he is in
when he realizes the need for that purchase—on a desktop computer at work, on an
iPad on the couch at home, on an iPhone as he rides in a car. That said, the odds of
the consumer completing that purchase in a given context is dependent on whether
the retailer can, in that context, assure the customer he's getting the best price, assure
the customer he can get it delivered when he wants it, assure the customer he will
receive a quality product, and assure the customer the product fits his needs."

In online shopping five years from today, location will be a critical component of
context, a component that will drive design, features and functions, says Nikki Baird,
a managing partner at Retail Systems Research LLC.

"Location services will become so sophisticated—and consumers, in their typical

approach to their privacy, ignorant enough—that the shopping experience will hinge
on the combination of the type of device and the location of the consumer," Baird says.
"That will tell the retailer how to engage with a shopper, down to whether the shopper
is accessing the retailer on a smartphone from the retailer¹s own Wi-Fi in-store or in
the parking lot, or from the same IP address in the home, and so on."

In 2018, mobile commerce sales on smartphones and tablets will account for 27% of
total web sales in the U.S., according to research firm eMarketer Inc., and 47% of total
web sales worldwide, according to investment bank The Goldman Sachs Group Inc.
The percentage globally is higher because the percentage of consumers who primarily
use smartphones to access the web is much higher in developing countries with huge
populations compared with the U.S.

Baird says in five years the distinction of mobile commerce being shopping and buying
on smartphones and tablets will remain, but retailers will by then have much more
experience selling to consumers on mobile devices and will better know how to
customize shopping by device, context and location.

"Retailers already separate tablets from smartphones within the category of mobile
devices, that's how they look at traffic," Baird says. "But five years from now, retailers
will have much more distinct strategies for tablet shoppers versus smartphone
shoppers. The behaviors are different, and the experiences are very different."

It should be noted that shopping on mobile devices occurs not just on the go but in the
home. Some retailers like to call this "mobile in the home," meaning a customer can
shop from literally any location within their homes thanks to their untethered mobile
devices and home Wi-Fi networks. 80% of tablet shoppers and 67% of smartphone
shoppers use their devices to shop in the home, according to new research from
Nielsen. So mobile is still mobile, but context on the very same device can change
wildly.

Mobile devices—defined as smartphones and tablets, by far the most common

definition used by retailers—will continue to be mobile anywhere and everywhere,
experts say. Consumers who own smartphones are virtually never without their
smartphones, no matter the time or location. And 68% of consumers who own both a
desktop and a tablet take their tablets with them when they leave home at least 25%
of the time; 14% take their tablets 75-99% of the time, according to research from
marketing firm Adroit Digital.

Ultimately, when it comes to online shopping, consumers in the home will dump their
desktop PCs and laptops in favor of tablets, predicts Julie A. Ask, a vice president and
principal analyst at Forrester Research Inc.

"In five years, tablets will offer a more immersive experience," Ask says. "These tablets
will have cameras. There will be gesture-based and voice control. They’ll have two
cameras on one side of the device for 3-D imaging, measurements, etc., things that
will allow consumers to have more experience with products before they buy them."

But while tablets come to dominate mobile commerce sales as well as replace
desktops and laptops, the importance of smartphones does not diminish, Ask says.

"Smartphones play a huge role in the purchase process: The percentage of purchases
smartphones influence dwarfs the total amount of sales transacted on smartphones,"
she says. "Mobility and connected devices, especially smartphones, are changing
everything about the way companies sell products and offer customer service."
M-Retailing: The Next BIG
Thing
By Paul Brewster
Posted in Mobile on 19 September 2014, 13:00, 1 Comment

What is fast becoming known as m-retailing will likely become the next BIG power play
for many online retailers and businesses who sell goods and services on the Internet.
With the seemingly never ending upward curve of smartphone and tablet usage across the
globe, the ability to sell effectively and efficiently on the mobile platform could (and,
probably will) determine the next generation of e-commerce winners and losers.
The winners will ensure that there are as few barriers as possible between customers and
the final purchase. For those companies still struggling with the concepts of ‘frictionless
e-commerce‘, the future might not look so rosy!
Without doubt we will see a continuation of the on-going up-lift in the numbers of website
visitors who are using a tablet or smartphone to access a website instead of a traditional
(laptop, PC) device.
This trend through 2015 and beyond is doubtless going to gather momentum. These
visitors are your potential customers, so the need to create a secure, speedy and usable m-
retailing experience is, in my opinion, at tipping point.
We are at the forefront of a major shift in e-commerce. However, let’s say we are still at
m-retailing 1.0. Conversion rates for web sales through the mobile platform are still
lagging behind those achieved through traditional devices. In 2014, this is understandable.
However by 2020 if your mobile e-commerce conversion percentages are not where they
should be: then – will you still be in business and selling profitably online? It’s a serious
question, and one not to be scoffed at or taken lightly by those businesses currently raking
in the profits from web sales taken on a traditional device.
The BIG m-retailing winners over the next 3-5 years will also seek to seamlessly integrate
their mobile brand delivery with their in-store retail design, presentation, payment and
buying experience.
Now is also most definitely the time when smaller and medium sized organisations should
be looking to gain a first mover advantage over competitors by streamlining and
developing their mobile shopping experience.
NOW is the time to take a long hard look at your mobile retailing presentation,
website usability and architecture, and customer journey.
By maximising your mobile e-commerce conversion rate now, you will be taking the steps
necessary to deliver greater Internet sales and profitability in the not too distant future!
By Paul Brewster, eapb Marketing Consultancy