eBay expects $5 billion of sales via mobile in 2011

I know I keep banging on about the growing importance of mobile in the eCommerce space but I’ve just read a post on the Econsultancy blog which offers further clear evidence of this. Let’s look at some numbers for eBay for global sales via a mobile device:

• 2009 - $600 million

• 2010 - $2 billion

• 2011 (projected) - $5 billion

These increasing numbers are not just down to organic growth. eBay has consciously developed mobile as an integral part of its business with over 50 million app downloads worldwide across multiple platforms. In the first nine months of this year 600,000 new eBay customers made their first purchase through an app having never previously used the site.

Last month, eBay published a “Mobile Manifesto” to call on the British Government and the EU to improve mobile access. It said that poor 3G access potentially costs the UK economy £1.3bn in lost mobile revenue. According to Claire Moore-Bridger, eBay’s head of corporate communications, 

“Mobile accounts for 10% of our UK business and it’s growing all the time. If you fast forward younger people will be growing up with nothing but mobile commerce, so you have to take into account that this is our future market and embrace the technology now.”

The big retailers are acting on this and developing apps and mobile sites. The people who need to heed this message are independent retailers and smaller or niche players. These are the people who maybe don’t have sufficient resources or in-house expertise to develop a mobile platform. However, there is no doubt that mobile commerce will continue to grow as smartphone ownership increases and usability improves. The consequence of not addressing that could be pretty damaging for many smaller retailers.

Read “eBay expects to see $5bn of sales via mobile for 2011” on the Econsultancy blog