Forrester Mobile Commerce Forecast: 2011 to 2016, predicts $31 billion by 2016

According to the new Forrester Mobile Commerce Forecast 2011 to 2016 report from Forrester Research, mobile commerce is expected to top a staggering $31 billion by the end of 2016.

Let’s start from this year and work our way out for the Forrester Mobile Commerce Forecast. 2011 isn’t looking too shabby if this report is accurate, showing the mobile commerce sales will hit $6 billion by year’s end. Assuming that this year will reach $6 billion and 2016 will reach $31 billion, that would represent a compound growth rate of 39% for mobile commerce over the next five years, which is strangely the same percentage as companies who have no strategy defined yet. By the end of next year, Forrester expects the mobile commerce industry to account for $10 billion in revenue. So, rapid growth is expected but it could be more.

Forrester Mobile Commerce Forecast finds security to be a key issue

Even if the Forrester Mobile Commerce Forecast is correct and by 2016 there is $31 billion in sales from m-commerce, that still means that it would only account for 7% of e-commerce sales, which in turn signifies 1% of all sales. This year and next, mobile commerce will only account for 2% and 3% of sales respectively. Forrester postulates that there are a few major factors limiting the figures becoming astronomical:

• Concerns about security of mobile commerce tops the list. This one tops the list for NFC mobile wallets too.
• Technical barriers, whether that be due to people being uneducated about mobile commerce purchasing; or not having the equipment to do so.
• Hard to navigate slow mobile commerce sites. This creates a bad user experience, and at this time can effect whether a consumer would use their phone for purchases.

Forrester Mobile Commerce Forecast reports adoption statistics to see how many companies are capitalizing on m-commerce

After perusing the figures for a little while, we couldn’t help but notice that the Forrester Mobile Commerce Forecast figures correlate with the rate at which companies planned and deployed social media campaigns a few years ago.

• The report found 29% of retailers have already implemented a mobile strategy.
• 19% are only now starting work on implementation.
• 9% have a strategy they have not implemented yet.
• A whopping 39% are in the early stages of developing a strategy.

Here at NFC Rumors, we look at a lot of forecasts and Forrester has an excellent track record. If your company isn’t focused on mobile commerce, we suggest you look at the Forrester Mobile Commerce Forecast and ensure your company is ready for its share of the $31 billion in 2016.