Mobile device shopping rapidly gaining popularity

Electronic payments are becoming many consumers' preferred method of shopping, as Cyber Monday this year set a sales record by a wide margin. At the same time, mobile shopping is becoming extremely popular as well, according to a recent study by Mobidia Technology.  "As expected, our Black Friday analysis showed that many consumers shopped on their smartphones on Black Friday, but shoppers appear to be gravitating toward online retailers for their mobile shopping," said Chris Hill, vice president of marketing at Mobidia. Retailers may want to invest more in mobile shopping apps. The Mobidia report found that an estimated 14 million Americans used their smartphones to shop on Black Friday, representing 12 percent of all consumers who made purchases that day. Meanwhile, online retailers received the most traffic on their mobile shopping apps, five times more than traditional retailer applications. According to a separate report by IBM, e-commerce soared 30 percent higher on Cyber Monday 2012 than in 2011. Mobile shopping saw even greater gains, with mobile sales jumping 96 percent from 2011 to 2012. In addition, 18 percent of shoppers browsed a retailer's website on their mobile devices, marking a 70 percent year-over-year growth.