M-commerce sales rise 2.9%

Mobile sales have increased 2.9% year on year as consumers increasingly turn to their handsets to make purchases, according to research released today (October 21).

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Capgemini and IMRG, which made the findings through a new tracking initiative called the Quarterly Benchmarking Index, found that mobile sales accounted for 3.3% of all online sales during the first quarter of 2011, up from 0.4% for the same quarter last year.

The quarterly Index tracks customer acquisition, basket abandonment rate and order fulfilment across retailers including John Lewis, Marks & Spencer and Debenhams.

The findings showed that the percentage of visits to retailer’s websites via mobile devices had increased to 7% in the first quarter of 2011, up from 1.4%.

It also said that checkout abandonment rates dropped from average of 37% to 32%.

David J Smith, chief marketing and communications officer at IMRG, says: “Mobile has been discussed for a while now as an important channel for retailers to engage through, and with some retailers having up to 12% of their traffic coming through that channel, its popularity among consumers is clear.”

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