How Social Shopping and Multi-Device Purchasing Are Reshaping Retail in 2016

The Ecommerce Explosion: Beyond Traditional Retail

Retail growth has become increasingly synonymous with digital transformation. While traditional retail expanded by 3.3% in 2015 and projected 3.5% growth in 2016, ecommerce is outpacing these numbers. Currently representing just 7.1% of U.S. retail sales, projections suggest this will surge to 9.8% by 2019. What’s more striking is that Asia/Pacific markets are already at 10.2% ecommerce penetration, while Western Europe sits at 7.5%, indicating how global consumer behavior is fundamentally shifting toward digital channels.

The demographic narrative tells the story: baby boomers migrating to online platforms combined with millennials who were born into digital channels means ecommerce will continue accelerating its advantage over brick-and-mortar for years to come.

The Device Revolution: Why One Screen Isn’t Enough

Mobile devices have become indispensable to purchasing decisions. Mobile commerce alone is expected to represent 32% of total ecommerce sales and 2.6% of overall retail in 2016. But the real game-changer? Smartphones are projected to capture 50% of mobile commerce this year, jumping to 53.5% by 2020.

Yet here’s what retailers are only now realizing: customers don’t shop on one device anymore. Research from Forrester reveals that mobile devices influenced $1 trillion in sales during 2015—not because they completed the purchase, but because they guided the entire journey. A customer might research a product on their phone at 10 a.m., compare prices on a tablet at noon, and purchase on a desktop that evening. Some might even complete the transaction in a physical store after researching online.

This multi-device reality has forced retailers to abandon device-centric thinking and adopt customer-centric strategies instead. The old playbook of optimizing for a single touchpoint is dead.

The Social Commerce Phenomenon

Traditional shopping has always been social. Friends gathered at stores, debated options, influenced each other’s choices. Online retail stripped this away, making purchases feel transactional rather than experiential.

Social shopping changes this equation. Platforms like Facebook have already rolled out Buy buttons and branded storefronts. Twitter, Pinterest, and Google Shopping have followed suit. The marriage of social networking and shopping transforms the experience from a solitary task into a collaborative activity that happens natively within the platforms people already use daily.

This shift is particularly powerful for millennials and younger consumers who expect to discover, discuss, and purchase within their social ecosystem. When personal recommendations come from friends within a trusted network, conversion rates spike dramatically.

Geography Dissolves: The Global Marketplace Emerges

Physical borders have become irrelevant to modern consumers. If a local retailer doesn’t stock what someone wants, the first instinct is checking online—and the second is checking international options. This borderless behavior creates pressure for retailers to expand globally or face obsolescence.

The Asian Markets Leading Growth

China represents the clearest example. While economic headwinds create caution, Boston Consulting Group and AliResearch project China’s consumer economy will expand to $6.5 trillion by 2020. The drivers are straightforward: a burgeoning upper-middle class, a tech-savvy generation aged 18-35 with disposable income, and crucially, a shift toward services and digital-first consumption.

Mobile will dominate Chinese ecommerce, contributing 90% of the $6.5 trillion figure. Consumers prefer online marketplaces over brand websites, seeking discounts, multiple payment options, and wider product selection. Cross-border purchasing is explosive too—Chinese consumers crave foreign goods, particularly from the U.S., South Korea, and Japan. The Ministry of Commerce projects cross-border transactions will constitute 20% of total foreign commerce and maintain 30%+ annual growth.

India’s ecommerce market, meanwhile, is on a different trajectory. ASSOCHAM reports 67% projected growth in 2016, reaching a $38 billion market—10 times larger than the $3.8 billion market in 2009. Mobile drives this surge, with mobile platforms handling 78% of shopping queries in 2015 compared to just 46% in 2013.

The typical Indian online shopper is male (65%), aged 26-35 (52%), purchasing apparel, electronics, and personal care items. Growing internet penetration, improved payment acceptance, and aggressive discounting have democratized ecommerce access across income tiers.

How Sellers Are Adapting: Five Critical Strategies

1. From Device to Person

The era of device-specific optimization has ended. Retailers must now track customer journeys across phones, tablets, desktops, and physical stores. Companies like Facebook are implementing technology that enables this seamless tracking. The O2O (online-to-offline) model—where research happens online but purchase occurs offline—requires a completely different infrastructure than companies built for pure-play ecommerce.

2. App or Mobile Web: The Smaller Players’ Dilemma

Amazon and Alibaba can afford app-centric strategies because their brand dominance drives downloads. Smaller retailers face a different reality: customers won’t download an unknown retailer’s app. These players depend on mobile web and search visibility. Google’s role becomes critical here—its search engine now indexes individual apps alongside web content, making discovery possible for smaller competitors.

3. Omnichannel Logistics

Speed and flexibility define modern retail. Amazon achieved this through warehouse networks and the Fulfillment by Amazon program, incentivizing sellers to store inventory in Amazon facilities in exchange for handling fulfillment. Recently, Amazon leased 21 aircraft to strengthen logistics capabilities—a signal of how seriously the largest players take last-mile delivery.

Traditional retailers like Walmart and Target already possess physical infrastructure; they’re leveraging stores as distribution hubs and using them as pickup points for online orders. The integration of digital and physical channels isn’t optional—it’s foundational.

4. Technology as Competitive Differentiator

Beacon technology lets retailers track in-store customers and send targeted promotions. NFC, QR codes, Bluetooth low energy, and Soundwave technologies enable frictionless payments. Connected devices—TVs, gaming consoles—are becoming platforms for digital content purchases.

Walmart and Target are investing aggressively here, matching the innovation velocity of pure-play ecommerce competitors. The gap between digital-native companies and traditional retailers is narrowing.

5. App-Based Services as the Next Frontier

Beyond traditional ecommerce, services are being packaged into apps. Uber revolutionized taxi hailing. Apps like Feastly, EatWith, and Cookapp connect tourists with locals sharing meals. ZIRX and Luxe handle valet services. Payment and healthcare apps follow similar patterns. The common thread: focus on a single service to reduce complexity and friction.

The Discount Conundrum

Competition remains fierce, and discounting is weaponized across the industry. Groupon pioneered the group buying format but faced challenges from low barriers to entry. The evolution toward marketplace models—where discounts and promotions are distributed across multiple sellers—is the emerging solution.

Emerging Formats: The Google Purchase Integration

Google has launched “Purchases On Google,” leveraging its product listing ads for Android and iOS. The mechanism is elegant: users see Google’s carousel interface displaying products. If users qualify for direct purchase, a “Buy On Google” option appears, leading to a seller-branded page where stored payment information enables one-click checkout.

Google processes only the transaction; fulfillment, customer support, and data retention remain the retailer’s responsibility. This model gives sellers the visibility of Google’s reach without surrendering their customer relationships.

Market Outlook and Earnings Momentum

The Retail/Wholesale sector outperformed the S&P 500 in Q1 2016, posting 6.1% revenue growth versus -0.8% for the broader index. Earnings growth of 3.6% exceeded the S&P’s -6.5% decline. For Q2, the sector projects 4.7% revenue growth and -0.6% earnings growth—a slight contraction but still more resilient than the S&P’s projected -0.7% revenue and -6.2% earnings declines.

Technology sectors supporting ecommerce showed more modest momentum: 0.4% revenue growth and -4.5% earnings in Q1. This suggests the market is consolidating around proven players rather than funding new entrants.

The Bottom Line

Ecommerce in 2016 isn’t about choosing between online and offline, mobile apps or websites, or national versus international markets. It’s about integration. The winners are those building seamless experiences across devices, geographies, and channels while using data and technology to stay ahead of competitor innovation. Whether it’s Alibaba in China, Flipkart and Snapdeal in India, or Amazon in the West, the playbook is consistent: move fast, invest in logistics, and prioritize customer experience above all else.