More and more people are willing to buy products and services online. According to the latest market study by eMarketer, U.S. mobile commerce sales -- including travel related services -- surged 91.4 percent to reach $6.7 billion in 2011.
Ongoing growth is forecast to boost sales to $31 billion in 2015.
The key market development trends are already in motion. Familiarity with using mobile shopping services via a smartphone -- plus an increasing number of retailers launching mobile optimized websites and apps -- will play an important role in driving additional m-commerce sales.
"To keep up with consumer expectations, retailers are bolstering their mobile offerings," said Jeffrey Grau, eMarketer principal analyst. “Retailers were slow to react to consumer interest in mobile shopping. But now they are making great strides in launching mobile websites and apps."
This accelerated momentum will help U.S. m-commerce related revenue grow at a compound annual rate of 55 percent from 2010 to 2015 -- that's including 73.1 percent growth expected this year.
eMarketer believes that in 2011 mobile shopping became synonymous with smartphone shopping. The percentage of mobile shoppers who were smartphone users jumped to 93 percent, from 75 percent in 2010.
As people adopt smartphones they will naturally take advantage of powerful capabilities for doing a range of mobile activities -- including the researching, shopping and buying of merchandise.
Completing a purchase via mobile is less popular, however, with only 26.8 million mobile users estimated to have done so in 2011 -- but that's predicted to rise to 61.8 million in 2015.
"Purchases from mobile phones still account for a tiny share of total e-commerce sales," said Grau. "However, in some retail categories like flash sales and tickets, retailers report a much higher share of sales coming from mobile users."