Retail Leader
As consumers spend more time on their phones and tablets and have grown to value the convenience of shopping wherever they are, mobile e-commerce sales are poised to grow.
Mobile global e-commerce sales reached $2.2 trillion in 2023, and now make up 60% of all e-commerce sales around the world, according to Statista’s Market Insights. Globally, a large part of e-commerce growth is driven by consumers using their mobile devices, phones and tablets, to purchase items and services.
The share of mobile e-commerce in all e-commerce has been on a steady climb, up from just 56% in 2018 to an expected 62% in 2027. The increase of mobile e-commerce sales themselves has been even steeper as the whole sector keeps expanding globally. In 2027, Statista analysts expect $3.4 trillion of mobile e-commerce sales, in contrast with the $982 billion that were generated in the segment in 2018
2022, the number of unique mobile internet users stood at five billion, indicating that more than 60% of the global internet population uses a mobile device to go online. Mobile ownership and internet usage are forecasted to keep growing, as mobile technologies are becoming more affordable and available than ever.
Today, mobile internet traffic accounts for almost 60% of total web traffic, while in mobile-first markets such as Asia and Africa, mobile connections account for an even larger share of web page views. During the second quarter of 2022, global users spent over than half of their online time browsing the web from their mobile phones.
Still, global consumer spending on mobile apps has experienced a decline for the first time in seven years, with consumers spending $167 billion on in-app purchases, subscriptions and app experience upgrades last year. This represents a 2% decrease from the $170 billion U.S. generated by the mobile app market in 2021. While global consumers keep downloading apps onto their devices at a growing rate and app installs surpassed the 250 billion threshold last year, the mobile ecosystem might be normalizing after the accelerated consumption driven by two years in the tight grip of the COVID-19 global pandemic, Statista said.