Mobile e-commerce is a huge part of our lives now. From Etsy to eBay to Amazon to Groupon, you can bet that there is an app for that. You can buy pretty much anything from the comfort of your own couch. Generally, when we talk about mobile e-commerce, the focus is on retail. Today I’d like to turn the spotlight onto B2B, with the help of this handy infographic from Usablenet.
The numbers for B2B e-commerce market may be a little bigger than you thought; it’s estimated to hit $780 billion this year, rising to $1.1 trillion by 2020. Those are definitely some attention-grabbing digits. So it’s no wonder that so many B2B businesses are investing in e-commerce technology to try to grab a piece of that pie. By 2019, wholesalers and manufacturers will account for 30% of the total spending on this technology, while online retailers trail behind at 28%. This is a big change from 2013, when retailers and B2B companies stood at 41% and 20%, respectively. The money spent on mobile marketing has risen too. Over half of B2B marketers have mobile marketing strategies, and almost all planned to spend as much or more this year.
Clearly, B2B marketers are buying-in. But how do the numbers look on the sales side?
- 70% of B2B marketers get 25% of their site traffic from mobile
- Mobile revenue is the primary revenue for 21% of B2B companies
- Nearly 60% of business buyers have purchased online
- 40% of B2B buyers plan to spend more online next year
- 56% of B2B buyers often use their phones to look at B2B sites
- 24% of B2B buyers have made business purchases with their phone
94% of B2B buyers do at least a little research online before taking the plunge on business purchases. Of those aged 18-25, 55% use their phones to research. So do 36% of those aged 45. It’s important to make sure that your B2B sites are optimized for mobile use. In fact, over half of B2B e-commerce executives say that there are some customers that can only be profitably supported online.
Are you making more room for mobile marketing and e-commerce technologies in your budget? Can we find your mobile purchasing app in the App Store, or are you holding back and wondering about the ROI? Let us know in the comments.