Study: Mobile Commerce Transactions to Hit 195 Billion by 2019

Despite cybersecurity concerns, mobile commerce is here to stay and quickly growing, according to a new report.

Research from UK-based Juniper Research finds that smartphone and tablet users will make 195 billion mobile commerce transactions by 2019, up from 72 billion in 2014. Within mobile commerce, the greatest growth will be driven by contactless mobile payment systems, such as Apple Pay.

“A large number of consumer concerns are around the security elements,” Juniper Research report author Dr. Windsor Holden said.

But Dr. Holden compared today’s fears to those in the early days of desktop e-commerce.

“Consumers are becoming more accustomed to spending on smartphones and to an even more significant extent on tablets,” Dr. Holden said.

Indeed, Dr. Holden predicts a huge jump in the number of transactions made on smartphones and tablets this holiday season alone.

“The figures we saw last year, about 18% of all e-transactions in the U.S. were on mobile phones and tablets. I expect to see a very, very sharp increase … around 30% to 35% of all e-commerce transactions,” he said. He added that consumers are increasingly “media-stacking” – shopping online while watching TV.

As for contactless pay, Dr. Holden said that Apple Pay will likely prove to be revolutionary for the mobile payments field.

“In the same way that Apple created the market for consumer applications and created the market for smartphones and tablets … Apple coming in changes the game entirely with its marketing power,” he added.