Forget the Publicity

My wife writes both advertorial and editorial articles. Although the former is her main course, even she won't get lured into believing things from self-promoters and popular resources (e.g., consumer magazines). If you read women's magazines, the hottest web sites for shopping are fashion sites such as Blufly and Zappos. Reality: the 25 fastest growing mobile commerce sites* in the West are 16 retail business, 3 travel, 3 hotel and 3 ticketing. Retail sites that have grown 200 percent or more include the British retailer, Marks & Spencer, Netshoes and the University of South Carolina's Gamecocks football team's GarnetandBlackTraditions.com. Stubhub and Fandago take it for ticketing. Orbitz is still doing well and Hilton and Best Western are popular for hotels. Fab.com grew 567 percent from a single app!

Three things to think about: Security, security and security. Mobile commerce is not going away anytime in the foreseeable future. If an app is worth creating, there better be security to go along with it.


*Source: The Mobile 400 Guide from Internet Retailer

TOP 25 FASTEST-GROWING MOBILE COMMERCE SITES 2012 Rank Company Name Merchant Type Growth % 67 Fab.com Retail 567% 389 Garnet and Black Traditions Retail 384% 19 RueLaLa.com Retail 350% 233 Working Persons Enterprises Inc. Retail 310% 4 Orbitz LLC Travel 300% 47 Netshoes Retail 300% 74 New Look Retail Group Ltd. Retail 246% 46 StubHub Inc. Ticket 233% 326 Lukie Games Inc. Retail 233% 16 Fandango Ticket 219% 163 Fathead LLC Retail 215% 26 ShopNBC.com Retail 200% 27 Amtrak Travel 200% 110 Wine.com Inc. Retail 200% 43 Marks & Spencer Retail 200% 111 MovieTickets.com Inc. Ticket 197% 36 One Kings Lane Retail 193% 155 HotelTonight Travel 188% 274 Alex and Ani Retail 188% 7 Hilton Worldwide Hotel 186% 152 iCruise.com Travel 176% 79 Tory Burch LLC Retail 176% 33 Redcats USA Retail 170% 130 Best Western International Inc. Hotel 169% 215 Whiteflash Retail 167%