Mobile to influence £41bn in-store sales by 2017, says Deloitte

The proliferation of smartphones is having a dramatic effect on retail sales, with new figures from Deloitte predicting that mobile will influence 10-15% of store retail sales by 2017 – equating to £27bn and £41bn in store sales.

That's a steady increase from this year’s mobile influence factor – the percentage of store sales where mobile phones are used as part of the shopping journey – which Deloitte has currently pitched at 6.8%, equating to £18bn of stores sales.

The growing mcommerce trend was reflected in recent figures from Capgemini and IMRG, which found that purchases made using smartphones and tables have grown exponentially year-on-year and now account for nearly a quarter (23%) of all online sales.

Deloitte's report into mobile influence, which polled over 2,000 UK consumers, also found that consumers that used their smartphones during their shopping trip were 63% more likely than the average to make a purchase, whilst those that used them before their shopping trip were 61% more likely.

Conversely, those that didn’t user their smartphone at all were only 37% more likely to make a purchase, the figures showed.

Big ticket items were shown to have the highest mobile influence factor with electricals the biggest at 39%, followed by sporting goods, toys and games (29%) and furniture (28%).

Perhaps most importantly, the Deloitte study found that consumers who used their smartphone during the purchase journey also spent more than the average, and therefore more valuable customers.

Deloitte's figures should help alleviate some retailers' fears over the growing showrooming trend - whereby consumers use their smartphones to make purchases via their mobile device whilst in-store. Whilst the trend has caused some anxiety, a study from Google Shopper Council and M.A.R.C recently compared the in-store purchases of moderate and frequent smartphone users and found that basket sizes of frequent mobile shoppers were 25-50% higher.