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Retail Ecommerce Sales Worldwide
Total and as a % of total retail sales
2021
$4.9 Trillion
2022
$5.54 Trillion
2023
$6.15 Trillion
2024
$6.77 Trillion
2025
$7.39 Trillion
Mobile ecommerce is expected to make up 10.4% of all retail sales in the US by 2025
The chart on the right shows how mCommerce has grown over recent years, expected to claim over 10% of total retail sales in the US by 2025.
According to research from Insider Intelligence mCommerce sales totalled $359 billion in 2021, an increase of 15.2% over 2020.
Mobile transactions are expected to account for 44.2% of retail eCommerce sales ($728 billion) in the US in 2025.
Retail Mcommerce Sales Share in the US, 2018-2025 (% of total retail sales)
Chart by MerchantSavvy.co.uk
Mcommerce: How Rapid Growth Will Continue to Transform Retail.
Published May 2021.
Note: includes products or services ordered using online via mobile devices, regardless of the method of payment or fulfillment. Excludes travel and event tickets, payments such as bill pay, taxes, or money transfers, food services and drinking place sales, gambling, and other vice goods sales.
UK’s mCommerce market is expected to increase by over 55% from 2020 - 2024
In the UK, it is estimated that mobile eCommerce revenue will surpass $135 billion by 2024, as shown in the chart.
If this estimate is accurate, the UK’s mCommerce turnover will increase by over 55% compared to just 15.5% on point-of-sale terminals.
Proximity Payments
Nearly 50% of smartphone users are using proximity payments globally
The transition to cash-free society took a big jump forwards thanks to the pandemic. As can be seen in the graph, it is predicted that 1.5 billion smartphone users will be using proximity payments in 2025.
Mobile proximity payments are defined as using a mobile device to make an in-store or point of sale payment using mobile wallets and technology like near-field communication (NFC).
Apple Pay, Google Pay, and magnetic secure transmission (MST) payments like Samsung Pay or sound waves-based/signal-based payments are all good examples of proximity payment methods.
What mobile proximity payments aren’t, is when shoppers use smartphones to purchase something online through a payment processor (e.g. via PayPal or entering credit card details).
Nearly 9 in 10 smartphone users use proximity payments in China
The sudden rise in mobile proximity payment adoption has been spurred by an incredibly large uptick in China:
It was estimated that 87.3% of smartphone users in China had used mobile proximity payments in 2021. This was almost double the number of users in South Korea (45.6%) and the US (43.2%).
While contactless payments are incredibly popular in the UK, mobile proximity payments are failing to gain traction with older generations. In 2020, over 50% of 16 to 34-year-olds were registered for mobile payments, compared to 11% of those over 65. Overall, nearly a third of all UK adults are registered for mobile proximity payments.
Mobile Payment Methods
Forecast annual mobile wallet spend by 2024
$ 0 Trillion
of the world’s population to be making digital wallet payments by 2024
Increase in digital wallet
payments 2019-2024
payments 2019-2024
Digital wallets are also increasingly popular for eCommerce payments
As the chart shows, digital wallets have continued to grow in popularity between 2020 and 2021, projected to represent over half of all eCommerce transactions globally by 2025.
Globally digital wallets are now much more popular than card payments for POS payments
Digital wallets were responsible for 29% of all POS payments across the world in 2021. In comparison, 24% of payments were made by credit cards, 23% by debit cards and 18% by cash.
This trend is only predicted to continue, with digital wallets taking 39% of the share by 2025.
Global Ecommerce & POS payment methods 2021 - 2025
Ecommerce Methods
POS Methods
Ecommerce Methods
POS Methods
Chart by MerchantSavvy.co.uk
Chart Data Source:
Spending on mobile apps is expected to exceed $50 billion in the US by 2026 but the growth rate is slowing
In-app spending has increased from $30.4 billion in 2020 to a projected $42.3 billion in 2022. By 2026, in-app spending is expected to reach $52.1 billion.
This is not surprising when a survey of 400 app users surveyed by Heady.io 57.5% prefer to use a purpose-built mobile app instead of a mobile-friendly website and 74% claimed that purchasing products was their most-used feature.
Mobile vs Desktop Traffic
Mobile share of total online traffic continues to grow globally
This chart shows how the mobile share of global online traffic continues to pull away from desktops from Jan 2016 to Nov 2022.
However, it is important to appreciate the variance within this global average (click on the US and UK tabs to see their charts).
The proportion of traffic from mobile and desktop devices in the US and UK is pretty even as of November 2022.
The high global average of mobile traffic is largely influenced by Asia where around 70% of online traffic is from mobile devices.
Desktop vs Mobile Market Share (Jan 2016 - Nov 2022)
Global
US
UK
Global
US
UK
Charts by MerchantSavvy.co.uk
Browser Market Share Worldwide
The smaller the screen size, the larger the cart abandonment rate
Despite more users using mobiles to make purchases, they are more likely to fail to complete purchases compared to desktops and desktops.
Data Source: Barilliance
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