The French buy clothes and accessories, Germans like to buy World Cup football tickets, Americans like to buy cars and trucks – and lonely gamers worldwide buy more games on Valentines day. These are the top line findings of eBay’s m-commerce Infographics data for who bought what on mobile in 2010.
The company has seen more than 30million downloads of its app this year and has been mapping who buys what and where using mobile from 1 Jan to 21 December. And the findings are at once much as you’d expect and extraordinary.
“With more than 30 million downloads of eBay’s mobile apps worldwide, eBay is clearly a barometer for mobile shopping trends. We see people buying everything from designer apparel to cars and trucks on their phones regularly, and purchases being made through eBay mobile every second,” said Steve Yankovich, vice president of mobile for eBay.
“As mobile shopping peaked this year, eBay led the way by becoming the go-to shopping destination,” he says. “With more than 30 million downloads of eBay’s mobile apps worldwide, eBay is clearly a barometer for mobile shopping trends. We see people buying everything from designer apparel to cars and trucks on their phones regularly, and purchases being made through eBay mobile every second.”
So what are the key m-shopping moments worldwide? Well, according to eBay’s Infographics the trends make interesting reading for anyone looking to go global online or on mobile.
• High-End Holiday Spending: During the holiday shopping season (Nov. 25 – Dec. 25), U.S. eBay mobile sales grew 134 percent over the same period last year, generating nearly $100 million in GMV; worldwide, mobile sales grew 166 percent generating $230 million in GMV. Designer handbags, diamond jewelry and Rolex watches topped this year’s most expensive holiday purchases.
• Sports Shopping Spree: Major sporting events drove fans to shop on eBay mobile to commemorate some of the most highly coveted competitions. Based on mobile sales, the sports memorabilia category peaked in Canada, during February’s XXI Olympic Winter Games held in Vancouver, B.C. The category also peaked in Germany during the 2010 FIFA World CupTM South Africa, where Germany placed third, in June and July, and in France during July’s Tour de France®.
• Gaming Lovers: Valentine’s Day has become a boon for the video game industry as World of Warcraft® and Final Fantasy® hosted special online gaming events. Video game sales through eBay’s mobile apps spiked 68 percent week-over-week for the week ending on Feb. 14.
• Must-have Gadgets: In the U.S., tech lovers flocked to eBay as the iPad made its debut on April 4, driving the consumer electronics category to its annual peak the day after Apple’s tablet device first arrived in retail stores. On June 24, the day the iPhone® 4 launched in the U.S., the cell phones & accessories category hit its annual peak as a flurry of new and pre-owned iPhones were listed on eBay.
• Fashion Fanatics: As eBay released its Fashion app for iPhone this summer, clothing & accessories was a consistently popular category on mobile. In Canada and France, clothing & accessories was a top category overall based on mobile sales; it was a top three category in Australia, Germany, the U.K. and the U.S. During the busy shopping period between Black Friday (Nov. 29) and Mobile Sunday (Dec. 12), the category ranked number one in the U.S., in both GMV and sold items.
Demonstrating the breadth of merchandise people are purchasing on their mobile phones, eBay’s m-commerce infographic shows the categories representing the largest amount of U.S. mobile-generated sales overall for 2010:
1. Cars & trucks
2. Clothing & accessories
3. Auto parts
4. Sporting goods
5. Cell phones & accessories
Cars & trucks ranked in the top five categories in every state except Hawaii, and auto parts was a top five category in all 50 states. Other categories that were shopped through eBay mobile in nearly every state were clothing & accessories (49 states) and sporting goods (47 states).
The top three categories by sales for the year in each of eBay’s top six mobile commerce markets are:
• Canada: clothing & accessories, jewelry and cars & trucks
• France: clothing & accessories, jewelry and computers
• Germany: auto parts, cars & trucks and clothing & accessories
• Australia: cars & trucks, home improvement and clothing & accessories
• United Kingdom: cars & trucks, clothing & accessories and auto parts
• United States: cars & trucks, clothing & accessories and auto part.
