If B2B Mobile Commerce seems to be way off in the future for your business, or something only the biggest players in your industry need to be thinking about, think again. The world of B2B commerce is changing rapidly. While B2B eCommerce has been the hot topic in the last few years, the next great frontier seems to be mobile commerce.
Here are some amazing facts and statistics to get you thinking about mobile commerce’s potential to impact your business.
9 Amazing Facts About B2B Mobile Commerce
1. 176 million Americans own a smartphone.
According to Comscore, as of October 2014, 176 million people in the U.S. owned smartphones–– 73% of the total market for mobile phones, and about 55% of the United States’ total population. 47% of these smartphone owners used the Google Search app from their smart phone, and another 19% used Amazon Mobile.
2. 75% of B2B buyers rely on mobile search and ads.
According to a survey by International Data Group (IDG), three quarters of B2B tech buyers responding to the survey owned at least two mobile devices, 41% of B2B tech buyers purchased a product within six months of seeing an ad on a mobile device, 40% looked for a product in a retail store after seeing a mobile ad, and 36% clicked on a mobile ad for a technology product.
Granted, these are B2B buyers in the tech industry, but the tech industry itself is often a leading indicator of how technology will be used by other businesses in the future.
3. Nearly half of B2B buyers are influenced by social media.
The same IDG survey indicated that 45% of respondents said tech marketers’ presence on social media positively influenced their satisfaction with the company; 43% said it influenced their likelihood to purchase from the company; and 43% also said it influenced their likelihood to recommend the company.
Another important consideration is that the top app on smartphones, according to Comscore, is Facebook, with 72% of mobile users active on that app. Instagram was the second most commonly used social media app on smartphones, with 30% of smartphone users on the app, followed by Twitter at 20%.
4. Mobile commerce accounts for nearly a third of all e-commerce.
Internet Retailer projected that in 2015, mobile commerce would account for about 29.7% of all U.S. e-commerce sales compared with 24.6% in 2014. This is a figure relevant to all e-commerce sites (including B2C) but indicates how quickly this segment of the market is growing. Typically, trends in the B2C market impact the B2B market, so as this number grows, B2B mobile commerce is likely to grow as well.
5. Mobile devices account for 16% of visits to B2B eCommerce sites.
According to an infographic by Usablenet, 16% of B2B sites already have mobile traffic visiting their websites. This may not count as mobile commerce, given that the sites are often not optimized to allow for commerce transactions from a mobile device, but indicates that demand already exists among mobile B2B users.
6. Three quarters of B2B companies believe that mobile commerce is the future.
According to Usablenet, 78% of B2B companies believe mobile is the future of online commerce; half of B2B vendors surveyed already had the capability to support mobile commerce, and 75% planned to offer it by the end of 2014.
7. Nearly two thirds of B2B companies have mobile websites.
A recent report by digital marketing services firm Regalix Research indicates that 65% of B2B companies have a mobile site. The same percentage say they offer a mobile app. Half of those surveyed also said they had optimized content for mobile.
8. More than half of B2B executives are comfortable buying on mobile.
In another 2013 study by Forbes Insights, 511 executives in the United States across various industries were surveyed. Of those that responded, 52% said they were comfortable making business-related purchases on a mobile device.
9. B2B is not that far behind B2C in percentage of mobile revenue.
B2B mobile commerce does not differ from B2C by as much as you might think. According to Gartner, B2B generates 19.4% of digital commerce revenue from mobile channels. This is not that far behind the 22.6% that B2C digital commerce generates.
As the numbers for adoption of mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets grow, the growth rate for mobile commerce as a percentage of overall B2B sales – and as a percentage of B2B eCommerce – should also grow.
Although specific growth projections for B2B mobile commerce are hard to come by, mobile adoption is estimated by Forrester to grow between 2015 and 2020 at a combined annual growth rate of more than 17%. This rapid rate of adoption is sure to result in mobile commerce growth for B2B companies.
What is your company’s plan for B2B mobile commerce? We’d love to hear about it in the comments.