Mobile e-commerce is gaining momentum, with North American shopping app installations up 36% year-on-year

With the popularization of the Internet and the development of technology, mobile e-commerce sales increased by about 30% globally in 2020, accounting for 64% of total retail e-commerce sales.

According to eMarketer, mobile e-commerce sales will approach $3.2 trillion in 2021 and exceed $5 trillion in 2025. In addition, the use of shopping apps during the 2021 holiday season will be unprecedented.

Mobile e-commerce has developed rapidly, and shopping apps have also contributed greatly. According to the AppsFlyer report, the number of shopping app installations increased by 48% between January and July 2021. According to statistics, global shopping app spending increased by 55% compared with the same period from March to July 2020. Among them, the growth on Android system was 55%, and the growth on iOS system was 32%, and it is still on the rise.

AppsFlyer predicts that global in-app spending on shopping will grow 42% between July and November this year.

While the growth of shopping apps is more pronounced on Android globally, iOS dominates shopping app downloads in the U.S., accounting for about a quarter of the market, according to AppsFlyer.

The United States accounts for one-third of global e-commerce user acquisition (UA) budgets, exceeding $18 billion in the second half of 2020 and the first half of 2021.

AppsFlyer also found that North American shopping app installations increased 36% year-over-year compared to pre-pandemic levels, and in-app spending in 2021 peaked in March, up 156% from March 2020. Among them, according to App Annie and Sensor Tower data, fast fashion e-commerce app SHEIN replaced Amazon as the most downloaded shopping app on iOS and Android platforms in the United States.

Especially during the 2020 epidemic, the number of shopping app installations surged, exceeding the holiday peak starting in November and reaching 8%. At present, the share of e-commerce in the entire US retail industry has risen from 15.8% in 2019 to 21.3%. It can be seen that the e-commerce market in the United States still has a lot of room for development.

With the development of shopping apps, the industry trend of American e-commerce has also changed . Online purchases are no longer dominated by B2C, and B2B sales are also growing very fast. Merchants have also seen some new ways of selecting products and marketing. Multi-channel sales such as live streaming and social media advertising have become the choice of more sellers.

Hot-selling products, including customized products, household products, health technology products, fresh products and other categories, are favored by both buyers and sellers. It is expected that with the acceleration of vaccine distribution and the recovery of the tourism industry, tourism products and clothing will also usher in a new wave of growth.

Kenny Li, founder of brand channel service provider 6blu, said: "The epidemic has greatly accelerated the development of e-commerce in the United States, but it is still in its early stages of development and there are a lot of opportunities in the industry."

Therefore, it is recommended that merchants try to diversify their channels as much as possible, while improving the speed of logistics delivery, so as to gain an advantage in the competition.

Shopping Apps

North America

Mobile e-commerce