Latin America. Criteo, the performance marketing technology company, presented its report on The State of Mobile Commerce, which reveals clues about consumers' shopping habits during the first half of the year and predictions for mobile commerce, around the world.
The report confirms that mobile devices are inexorably beginning to dominate in e-commerce: Shoppers are increasingly using digital media to search for and buy products and an increasing rate of those transactions are captured by mobile devices versus traditional channels.
Mobile shopping is gaining more and more customers to the "desktop" (notebooks, PCs), the devices that reigned until today. In the most advanced markets (such as Japan and the United Kingdom) half of all online sales are already made through phones and tablets, something that also happens in the United States, but only within the group of top retailers, for whom mobile sales grew by 30 percent year-on-year to capture more than half (52%) of all e-commerce transactions.
Latin America also sees a significant advance in mobile over desktop purchases: for example, Brazil leads globally in the largest year-on-year increases in the proportion of mobile retail transactions, followed by Australia and France.
"This data confirms that our region is not left out of these trends. In Brazil, mobile sales went from (approximately) 14% in 2015 to 23% in 2016, the most important growth globally. Although Latin America has not yet reached the levels of the central countries, it shows that it is advancing faster than others," explains Alessander Firmino, Managing Director of Criteo Latin America and Brazil.
Smartphones and apps, an unbeatable combination
The smartphone continues to expand its leadership as the preferred shopping device, especially as features like fingerprint recognition allow transactions to be made effortless. This situation occurs to the detriment of purchases from tablets, which are constantly decreasing.
Mobile applications are also key in this phenomenon of mobile commerce. Criteo's research showed that apps generate more (and higher value) sales and higher conversion and loyalty rates than from the desktop or mobile web.
"As we say in our report, mCommerce has reached a tipping point, as retailers who have optimized their mobile shopping experience (via app or mobile web) take the lead over their competitors and drive more and more consumers. Those who generate a truly continuous mobile and multi-device experience and are prepared to interact with users no matter where they are throughout the purchase process will have an advantage over competitors," concludes Firmino.
