Mobile commerce isn’t just growing—it’s dominating in 2025 and projected to skyrocket throughout the rest of the decade. Whereas mobile transactions accounted for 43% of all retail ecommerce sales in 2018, Statista reports that revenue from mobile commerce represented more than half of all ecommerce sales by 2023 and is expected to top 63% by 2028.
The results from our recent survey of over 500 ecommerce leaders reflect this ongoing growth, as noted in our “Thrive in ’25: Achieving Ecommerce Success Through Data-Driven Strategies and Trends” report, with 35% reporting an increase in customers’ mobile usage and 41% saying improving their mobile shopping experience is a top priority for 2025.
What does all this mean for retailers? Mobile-first optimization is a necessity, not an option. Consumers expect seamless, fast, and hyper-personalized experiences when shopping on their phones, and brands that fail to deliver risk losing them to competitors that deliver an optimal mobile shopping experience—from browsing and buying to fulfillment.
As part of our Thrive in ’25 blog series, this article explores five key mobile commerce strategies brands can implement to improve online shopping experiences, boost conversions, and future-proof their business. From optimizing site speed to leveraging AI-driven personalization and social commerce, these insights are designed to help retailers stay ahead of mobile commerce trends and deliver the experiences shoppers expect.
1. Optimize for Speed: Mobile Performance is Non-Negotiable
By and large, mobile shoppers are impatient, so site speed is critical for successful mobile commerce. In fact, research has found that 40% of shoppers abandon a mobile site if it takes longer that three seconds to load—and every additional second of delay reduces conversions by 7%. That translates into retailers missing out on millions of dollars—not to mention the potential of acquiring a loyal customer—by having a slow-loading ecommerce site.
Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP), an open-source framework that enables brands to create lightweight, fast-loading web pages optimized for mobile devices, can dramatically boost loading times to improve mobile shopping experiences and conversion rates. AMP pages load 85% faster than standard web pages, reducing mobile bounce rates and keeping shoppers engaged.
Retailers can also speed up load times on mobile by optimizing image and video formats, as well as leverage content delivery networks (CDNs) to distribute content globally to ensure that pages load quickly regardless of a shopper’s location. The result? By optimizing the mobile shopping experience with faster-loading websites, retailers reduce abandonment rates, increase conversions, and enhance the overall experience—directly impacting revenue.
2. AI-Driven Personalization: The Key to Mobile Commerce Conversions
Shoppers expect tailored experiences when browsing and buying on their phones. They’ve made this fact quite clear in studies showing that 80% of consumers are more likely to shop with brands that personalize their interactions online. Mobile shoppers want context-aware recommendations, dynamic merchandising, and predictive search capabilities that make the shopping experience effortless.
With AI-powered personalization that uses shopper preferences and browsing history to deliver customized experiences, brands can increase conversion rates by up to 30%, according to McKinsey. AI-driven site search solutions implement natural language processing (NLP) to understand intent-based searches and auto-suggest relevant products, so mobile shoppers don’t have to type lengthy queries. The importance of optimized site search can’t be overstated, as 77% of ecommerce leaders say on-site search accuracy and relevance are essential for delivering a satisfactory customer experience.
AI engines excel at recommending the most relevant products to shoppers by analyzing their browsing history, previous purchases, and real-time behavior. Brands can also personalize product grids and homepage banners based on shopper behavior to increase engagement and average order value (AOV), as well as deliver tailored product recommendations and exclusive offers at just the right moment with real-time SMS and push notifications.
3. Merchandising in Mobile Commerce: Driving Conversions with the Right Products at the Right Time
Mobile shopping isn’t just about ease of access—it’s about creating a seamless experience that guides shoppers to the right products as efficiently as possible. Merchandising plays a critical role in mobile commerce success, ensuring that retailers present products in ways that maximize engagement, conversion rates, and AOV. The limited screen space on mobile devices makes strategic merchandising even more essential.
Mobile shoppers make faster purchasing decisions when presented with well-organized, visually appealing product displays and personalized recommendations as part of an easy-to-navigate mobile shopping experience. Research shows that AI-powered merchandising can boost conversion rates by up to 40% through personalized recommendations and showcasing relevant products at key decision points.
With limited space, mobile-friendly site search and intuitive category navigation are crucial. Merchandising strategies that highlight trending, best-selling, or seasonally relevant products within search results lead to higher click-through rates and increased conversions. Furthermore, considering that mobile shoppers don’t want to endlessly scroll, implementing intelligent filtering and sorting options—such as size, color, availability, and pricing—helps them find what they need quickly.
4. Social Commerce: Turning Social Browsers into Loyal Customers
Social commerce has been steadily on the rise for years. While ecommerce sales on social networks was just 5.5% of all online sales in 2018, according to Statista, it is expected to top 20% in 2025. Driven largely by TikTok Shop, Instagram Checkout, and Facebook Marketplace, eMarketer forecasts that social commerce sales will surpass $100 billion this year and increase to $150 billion by 2028.
Retailers can capitalize on social mobile commerce trends with shoppable posts that tag products directly on sites like Instagram, TikTok, and Pinterest for seamless in-app purchases, as well as livestream shopping events to engage mobile shoppers with TikTok and YouTube live shopping that allow instant purchases during video streams. Additionally, brands can leverage user-generated content (UGC) to build shopper trust and increase conversion rates by featuring customer photos and reviews in mobile product pages.
5. Mobile Checkout: Reduce Friction to Boost Conversions
The average cart abandonment rate exceeds 70% on mobile—largely due to complicated or slow checkout processes—so retailers need to streamline online checkout as much as possible to meet shoppers’ needs of speed and convenience and avoid losing millions in revenue.
There are many ways brands can optimize this crucial last step of the mobile commerce process, including one-click checkout with payment options like Google Pay, Apple Pay, and Shop Pay to make purchases faster and smoother. Retailers can also reduce form fields so that shoppers only need to enter essential information and minimize friction by auto-filling addresses and payment details where possible.
Guest checkout options also reduce friction at checkout by not forcing shoppers to create an account—23% of shoppers abandon carts if account creation is required. Lastly, auto-save cart functionality, which lets shoppers seamlessly return to their cart without needing to re-enter details, improves the checkout experience, increases conversions and repeat purchases, and boosts customer satisfaction.
The Future of Mobile Commerce Has Arrived
Mobile commerce is no longer the future—it’s the present. Online shopping in 2025 is faster, more intuitive, and more personalized than ever. From optimizing mobile shopping for speed and personalized search and merchandising to seamless social selling and smooth checkout experiences, brands that prioritize mobile commerce can outperform competitors, enhance shopper engagement, increase sales, and improve loyalty.
Stay on top of ever-evolving mobile commerce trends and get insights from Searchspring’s full report, “Thrive in ’25: Achieving Ecommerce Success Through Data-Driven Strategies and Trends,” to put your brand on the path to ecommerce growth this year.
Also in this series:
- Mobile Commerce Best Practices: Optimize Product Discovery, Merchandising, and Personalization
(Part 1)
