ComScore: This channel drives digital commerce growth

Consumers are shopping online more than ever before, and are especially fond of one particular platform to support the activity.

According to the comScore “2016 U.S. Cross-Platform Future in Focus” report from comScore, desktop and mobile digital commerce accounted for 15% of U.S. consumer spending in the fourth quarter of 2015. This was up from 12.5% the same quarter a year earlier and also represented an all-time high percentage.

However, mobile commerce volume grew 56% during 2015, while desktop e-commerce only increased 8%. By the fourth quarter of 2015 mobile commerce represented 17% of total digital commerce, compared to a 13% share a year earlier.

Despite the surge in mobile commerce, retailers are still struggling with mobile conversion. Mobile accounts for 60% of online shopping time but only 17% of e-commerce dollars spent. comScore attributes the lag to factors such as security concerns and small screen size, and says the gap will gradually shrink but never reach equilibrium.

Categories with high mobile conversion rates also demonstrated large mobile sales gains during 2015. These included video games, consoles and accessories (44% sales growth), toys and hobbies (42% sales growth), and sport and fitness items (32%). comScore says these three categories contain inexpensive, less complicated purchases that consumers are increasingly willing to make on their smartphones and tablets.

The study was based primarily on behavioral measurement from comScore Media Metrix Multi-Platform, which provides de-duplicated reporting of digital audiences across desktop computers, smartphones and tablets, and comScore Mobile Metrix, which provides de-duplicated reporting of mobile web and app audiences across both smartphones and tablets. The study also includes survey-based mobile data from comScore MobiLens.