If you're an online retailer who finds a lot of business dropping in via mobiles, break out the champagne. This is going to be your year.

 

According to a new study reported by CNBC, 'some smartphone users are getting into the habit of purchasing items via their smartphone, and this trend is only expected to grow in the coming year.'

 

Mobile online shopping 'more than tripled in the US from 2008 to 2009 and is poised for another sharp hike this year, according to the 'Mobile Commerce' report released from ABI Research,' CNBC reported.

 

The good times are going to keep rolling, too: In 2015, shoppers around the world are expected to spend about $119 billion on goods and services purchased via mobile phones. That number represents about 8 percent of the total e-commerce market.

 

“Mobile online shopping is reaching critical mass,” ABI senior analyst Mark Beccue, said. “In the United States, mobile online shopping rose from $396 million in 2008 to $1.2 billion in 2009. While definitions of ‘mass market adoption’ vary, a more than fivefold increase in one year indicates significant consumer interest.”

 

Noteworthy, he said, is that even that more than $1 billion turnover in the United States is dwarfed by the size of the mobile online shopping market in Japan, which exceeded $10 billion in 2009 alone.

 

 'This market is growing solidly in Europe too, and is expected to outpace the U.S. by the end of 2010, Beccue said.

 

The study suggested that by 2015 around 407 million people worldwide will carry out financial transactions with their banks using their mobile phones.

 

Mobile online shopping 'increased from about $369 million in 2008 to about $1.2 billion in 2009; and is estimated to reach as much as $2.4 billion in 2010,' Beccue reported. “Consumers used mobile shopping to get smarter about how they shop and they used mobile to get what they really wanted.”

 

It used to be that comparison shopping was pretty much all consumers wanted to do on their phones, yes, but they're now they're using their smartphones for 'impulse shopping and purchasing virtual goods for online gaming and social networking,' CNBC reported Beccue as saying, including small items like pizza and flowers.

 

'In fact, pizza retailers may stand to benefit more than other retailers in the impulse buy category because paying via mobile Internet replaces the hassle of handling cash when the pizza is delivered,' Beccue said.

 

Consumers pay for these items with their mobile phone by simply entering their phone number instead of using their credit card, and the charge is added to the consumer’s mobile phone bill or deducted from a pre-paid plan, he said.

 

According to CNBC, Beccue said that mobile payments for virtual goods was just under a $1 million in 2008, but in 2009 it jumped to $24.8 million as the option to purchase virtual items from a mobile phone became more prevalent.