Mobile commerce is no longer ‘coming next year’ – it’s here, and it’s driving sales for British e-businesses, according to an industry-leading survey by the UK’s leading payment processor, Sage Pay. The third annual Sage Pay e-Business Benchmark Report of 1,500 online businesses in the UK shows a jump in the past 12 months in businesses championing mobile apps and optimisation – with encouraging results.
The report findings reveal that large e-businesses are rapidly adapting to the rise in mobile, with 22% building mobile apps in the last year and 73% choosing to optimise their sites for mobile commerce.
A quarter of app-enabled businesses are now seeing 10% to 19% of sales coming via mobile devices, and over half of all respondents boasting apps (56%) are generating up to 10% of transactions through the add on.
Simon Black, CEO of Sage Pay, said: “As the UK e-commerce market continues to mature, the margins between success and failure become even finer. In this year’s report, the differentiators we saw a year ago are now the norm across all retailers. This pressure to stay at the cutting edge is driving UK e-commerce to new levels of sophistication.
“The results of the report prove that taking advantage of the mobile opportunity is critical to stimulating economic growth in the UK. With almost half of the businesses surveyed planning to introduce mobile apps in the coming months, Britain is poised for a bright future at the leading edge of mobile innovation.”
On the social front, Facebook continues to play a role in the evolution of online commerce activities – although to a lesser extent than its mobile counterparts. Just 15% of survey respondents have a Facebook store with embedded payment pages and only 36% of respondents plan to set one up within the year. Of the 24% that don’t have Facebook, the main reason given was lack of relevance for their business or perceived ability to generate sales over and above the website.
* Sage Pay has defined a small e-business as one conducting fewer than 5,000 transactions per quarter and a large e-business as transacting over 5,000 transactions per quarter.
For further information, please visit: http://www.benchmarkyourebusiness.com
