Due to the rising dominance of mobile phones, Gartner predicted that consumers will increasingly use mobile browsers and applications as the main points of interaction.
Gene Alvarez, research vice-president at Gartner, has urged ecommerce organisations to "scale up their operations to handle the increased visitation loads".
"As more people use smartphones," Mr Alvarez added, "they will expect an extension of their customer experience to be supported by this kind of device while demanding that social aspects of the web be intertwined with this experience."
By 2013, Gartner predicted that 80 per cent of North American and European online sellers will expand their operations into Brazil, Russia, India, Africa, Japan or China, which could lead to the rapid expansion of online consumerism.
Posted by Simon Jones
