The article was updated on July 22, 2024.
Mobile commerce growth is unparalleled in 2024. Statista reveals that as much as 60% of all eCommerce sales worldwide are attributed to mCommerce specifically. Just last year, it converted to $2.2 trillion in sales, and analysts expect it to hit $3.4 trillion in 2027.
Back in 2018, when the mCommerce sector was just picking up the pace, this number presented a more timid $982 billion figure, followed by years of rapid acceleration. If previously, conducting transactions via a mobile phone was a novelty, how consumers perceive mobile commerce in 2024 is entirely different. The convenience it offers has transformed into a habit for many users. So, businesses are expected to keep up.
This article will explore the immense potential of mCommerce for businesses and delve into the most recent trends in the field. We’ll discuss how those have already been implemented by companies and how you can capitalize on them when developing your own mСommerce app.
What is mobile commerce?
Mobile commerce is a subset of eCommerce that focuses exclusively on mobile phones, tablets, and other handheld devices. In a nutshell, it can include all the transactions done via a smartphone online. However, the main focus is on applications and how much simpler it is to shop or pay via an app, compared to visiting a website.
A couple of mobile commerce examples include Shein, eBay, the Tommy Hilfiger mobile app, the IKEA app, and Apple Pay.
Generally, all mСommerce apps fulfill at least one of three purposes: shopping or selling, banking, and payment. Consequently, the range of fields and sectors where businesses may profit from developing such an app is extremely wide. Are you in fintech, retail, gaming, or even interior design? Mobile commerce advantages are yours to reap.
Benefits of mobile commerce
The leading reason why mobile commerce solutions have skyrocketed in popularity is customer demand: there are numerous benefits to consumers that mCommerce delivers. In turn, this enables businesses to sell their products or services more effectively.
Let’s take a brief look at the advantages of mCommerce both for users and for businesses.
For customers
- The convenience of shopping: mСommerce applications enable users to shop at any place and time — and do it quickly.
- Improved personalization: Consumers tend to gravitate towards mobile commerce applications because of how personalized they look, act, and feel.
- Better transaction security: Today’s mobile commerce apps implement biometric authentication and tokenization, among other methods, to secure payments. Capital One predicts that the number of digital wallet users will reach 5.2 billion by 2026.
- Improved customer support experience: One of the mСommerce technology trends of 2024 is the use of AI and context-aware chatbots that enable users to get helpful responses immediately, without waiting to get in touch with an available human operator.
For businesses
- Enhanced product discovery: Besides appealing to your existing customers who could enjoy the app experience, mCommerce enables you to easily market your products to wider audiences on app stores and social media.
- Better brand recognition: One of the significant advantages of mobile commerce is the opportunity to establish an unforgettable connection between a particular product and your brand by implementing specific designs and features.
- Improved customer engagement: mСommerce applications in business also aid efforts in improving customer engagement. As an example, during Cyber Week — the annual hot season of sales — more than half of online purchases are made on a mobile device.
- Streamlined operations: While mСommerce app development may seem like a costly investment at first, it can help reduce expenses in the long run by enabling better resource management, automating processes, such as real-time inventory tracking and customer support, and integrating mobile payment systems.
Top mCommerce trends in 2024 and beyond
So far, we’ve discussed how mobile commerce works and what universal benefits businesses can derive from it. Now let’s dive deeper into the latest trends and how the future of mobile commerce might be shaped by their adoption.
1. Voice shopping
One of the latest trends in mobile commerce is voice shopping. Considering the rising popularity of voice assistants like Siri and Alexa and advancements in voice recognition, it’s becoming a pressing demand to include voice search as a feature.
Capital One estimates that voice shopping alone will yield $39.8 billion in sales this year. It’s not surprising, considering more and more younger consumers (around 76% in the 18–34 years old category) are using voice search to source information about local businesses.
Voice shopping is easy and quick, and it provides a hands-free experience that can be valuable to all sorts of demographics. Whether it’s to improve the app’s convenience or accessibility, introducing voice search won’t go amiss in today’s mCommerce landscape.
Some of the best mСommerce apps that feature voice shopping include the following:
- Amazon, America’s largest marketplace and one of the best-known eCommerce platforms in the world. Its voice search feature enables users to tap the microphone button in the search bar and simply say what they’re looking for.
- Flipkart, another widely known Indian marketplace. Flipkart’s mobile app has a voice search feature that can help if a person isn’t sure how a brand’s name is spelled. If a customer can say it, Flikart will find it, no typing required.
- Walmart, an American retail corporation that’s best known for its chain of hypermarkets. Its mobile commerce app enables users not only to merely search for items but also create shopping lists with voice input, and it can be connected to Siri. Additionally, Walmart Voice can be linked to Google Assistant and make shopping possible on any device that has Google Assistant without visiting any other apps or pages.
Lessons to learn: Voice search is already implemented in mobile apps by the world’s largest online marketplaces and for a good reason. It makes searching for items quicker and more accessible. At the same time, fewer apps offer a complete voice-controlled shopping experience from search to checkout, creating an opportunity for startups to fill that gap.
2. Social commerce
Social commerce is another of the 2024 mСommerce trends, and it’s worth taking a look if you want to keep up with brands like Glossier and Nike. The main distinction between social commerce and social marketing is, well, commerce — it enables businesses not only to simply advertise but sell products directly on social media platforms.
Statista reports that 86% of industry professionals believe that the main benefit of social media is increased exposure. However, the current trends stretch the uses of mobile commerce in social media far beyond simple marketing. Businesses can now opt for the following:
- Shopping integration, enabling users to buy products directly from Instagram, TikTok, and other platforms without being redirected to other pages.
- Influencer marketing, fostering collaboration with influencers who can film an honest product review and link your mobile app for their viewers to download.
- Shoppable live streaming, when you can host a livestream on social media and enable your audience to purchase products in real-time via an integrated “buy now” button.
Here are a couple more examples of brands leveraging social commerce:
- Lush. This cosmetics company makes the best of the “show, don’t tell” strategy. Their Pinterest page displays how to use particular products and enables their audience to buy them by visiting a particular product’s page on their website.
- Wayfair. The furniture retailer leverages Pinterest to enable quick buying, and they also display product prices and ratings in each item’s description in the app.
- Sephora. This beauty and perfume retailer has harnessed the power of Snapchat and its shopping AR lenses to gamify the shopping experience for customers. Their Snapchat stories enable users to “try on” everything from makeup to fragrances and buy quickly once they make their pick.
Lessons to learn: Considering the immense usability and the far reach of social media, social commerce is one of the most promising mobile commerce trends in 2024, and it’s likely to grow. It helps businesses bring their products directly into potential consumers’ hands by integrating shopping functionality with the most popular social media platforms.
With users spending 2.5 hours on social media daily (making it 1/3 of their total time online), social commerce is a must for brands that want to stay ahead of the competition.
3. The use of artificial intelligence
Artificial intelligence is on the rise, and it represents one of the most multifaceted mobile commerce opportunities. AI can greatly assist with analytics, personalized recommendations, content generation, processes automation, and customer support. At a glance, the market size of AI in retail has already accounted for $11.8 billion in 2024, and it’s predicted to reach $54.9 billion by 2033.
In 2024, it’s getting increasingly difficult to find a business that’s not incorporating AI, and a large portion of mobile commerce development services providers offer some form of AI development and integration.
In terms of personalization, machine learning (ML) algorithms can dynamically analyze a user’s previous purchases, browsing history within the app, and location preferences. It can provide accurate recommendations, based on a person’s query, and even suggest matching products of different categories. For instance, Zalando offers consumers its “Shop the Look” feature that helps put together a complete matching outfit.
Here are several mCommerce apps and platforms built around AI usage:
- Karma, an AI shopping assistant. It’s a browser extension that enables users to save the desired products for later and compare prices from different retailers. It also has mechanisms in place to predict when discounts are likely to appear, and it automatically searches for and adds coupons to purchases when available.
- H&M native shopping assistant app. The app provides H&M customers with a seamless experience that cuts time and effort to find the right items — and it also promotes related products. The app can help consumers find items in other sizes and colors and navigate physical shops, in addition to having the search and recommendation functionality.
- HomeDesignsAI is an app that uses AI to help customers redesign their homes. Users can simply upload a photo, choose from over 75 interior, exterior, or garden design styles and visualize the new look.
Lessons to learn: AI and ML will undoubtedly have a strong presence in the mobile commerce future. The vast majority of modern brands are already applying AI to create a more engaging shopping experience for customers and cut operating costs. The main advantage of the technology is how flexible it is: AI easily penetrates virtually any field, from fintech to retail, making it easy to incorporate for any business.
4. Super apps
Another example of mobile commerce app type on the rise is a super app. In a nutshell, it’s an app that encompasses many services, often including messaging, food delivery, mCommerce, and ride-hailing. Originating in Asia, super apps are predicted to make their way into the smartphones of 50% of the population by 2027.
Here are several examples of super apps in mCommerce:
- Rappi, a mobile commerce solution that was created in 2015 and grew to amass more than 30 million users across 9 countries. It offers digital payments, insurance, food delivery, and retail solutions.
- Uber, a well-known ride-hailing service, has long since branched out. In addition to finding car rides, users can now order food and find freight transport via Uber.
Lessons to learn: Super apps represent a trend that’s currently growing, but it’s yet to reach its peak. Considering it during your mobile commerce app development has a large potential, since it’s an opportunity to create an all-in-one app that could target countless demographics with various needs.
Thinking of mCommerce app development?
With vast portfolio of mCommerce and eCommerce solutions, we at Eastern Peak can help you build a feature-rich mobile commerce app following the latest technology trends.
5. Augmented Reality / Virtual Reality (AR/VR)
The AR and VR market is expected to generate revenue of $40.4 billion this year. And as much as 50% of survey respondents among Gen Z and Millennials said they would prefer shopping in VR instead of physical stores.
While in-store AR and VR technologies have almost become commonplace, augmented reality applied to mCommerce still has great potential to transform the mobile shopping experience.
For example, an AR-enabled mobile app can help your customers “try on” an item without the hassle and cost related to actually shipping the product. By placing realistic 3D models of clothing, furniture, or even makeup products in a real-life setting, you increase the immersive experience, which is usually more memorable. Thus, AR implementation results in increased user engagement, loyalty, drives conversion and helps lower operating costs.
The following companies have already integrated AR capabilities into their mCommerce applications:
- Sayduck is a marketplace for furniture makers, retailers, and designers. Its core feature, available exclusively in the mobile app, offers realistic 3D product visualization paired with Augmented Reality. This allows a user to see how an item would look like in real life and how it will match their interior.
- Houzz, a popular interior design portal, has recently introduced an Augmented Reality feature within its mobile commerce app to augment its mCommerce capabilities. Similar to Sayduck, the app allows you to put the items you want to buy into the real room setting using the smartphone’s camera.
- Sephora, another famous US beauty brand, has also introduced an opportunity to try out the products before buying them. With its Visual Artist app, users can “apply” different beauty products and see how they look in real time, using the smartphone’s camera and Augmented Reality. The app also provides step by step live makeup tutorials in AR.
Lesson to learn: AR/VR is a trend that maintains its relevance from year to year. For mCommerce startups, in particular, it’s a powerful technology to explore, since it brings a sense of real-life interaction to online shopping mechanics. A growing number of brands in retail, beauty, and design are already implementing AR/VR, so if you find yourself among them, it’s time to catch up.
Wrapping up
As you can see, leading retail brands and startups alike set the pace for innovations in retail. The listed trends are among the most promising opportunities a business can tap into right now with the prospect of significant ROI in the near future. By failing to keep up with the competition, you can put your whole business at risk.
We at Eastern Peak have extensive knowledge of such cutting-edge technologies as AR/VR, Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning, as well as chatbots. We have hands-on experience in building mCommerce apps and on-demand solutions across a number of business domains. With this we can confidently help you build successful products, be it a core business offering or a value-added solution to augment your business.
To receive a personal consultation about custom mCommerce app development, contact us now.
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About the author:
Mary Stadnik, Strategic Partnerships Lead, UK at Eastern Peak
As a highly experienced and motivated business development leader, Mary helps build mutually beneficial relationships with Eastern Peak’s clients through technology innovation, strategy development and professional guidance to deliver stellar products both globally and locally in the UK.
