Study Shows United States Continuing to Lead E-commerce Sales as Mobile Commerce Shifts Transactions Away From the Desktop Computer

RetailMeNot, Inc. Partners With the Centre for Retail Research to Deliver Report on E-commerce and Mobile Commerce Growth in North America and Europe

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Mar 31, 2015, 07:00 ET

AUSTIN, Texas, March 31, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- The United States continues to lead e-commerce among the most Internet-friendly markets surveyed in North America and Europe, according to an international study commissioned by RetailMeNot, Inc. (www.retailmenot.com/corp), the world's largest marketplace for digital offers. The study, carried out by the Centre for Retail Research (http://www.retailresearch.org/), reveals that despite having a smaller population than the eight combined European countries surveyed and one of the smallest projected year-over-year growth rates, the United States still leads e-commerce sales with an expected revenue of $349 billion (compared to $254 billion in projected sales in surveyed European countries).

United States consumers also have the highest average order value (AOV) of $115 per purchase online, a 26% increase over all eight countries surveyed in Europe ($85); 21% greater than consumers in Sweden ($91); 22% greater than consumers in the United Kingdom ($90); and 15% greater than the average Canadian purchase ($98). That growth in online sales, across the 10 countries surveyed, is largely being driven by consumers' collective adoption of mobile commerce.

The United States also appears to be adopting the shift to mobile at a faster rate than other countries surveyed. Mobile commerce is projected to represent 27% of total e-commerce sales in the United States ($93.6 billion) in 2015 versus 20% of e-commerce in the eight countries surveyed in Europe ($61.5 billion).

A full version of the study is available at: rmn.com/crr15

"New generations of smartphones, from the iPhone 6 Plus to the Samsung Galaxy Note, are changing the game in mobile commerce. Consumers in North America and Europe are growing increasingly comfortable transacting over these devices, thanks to increased connection speeds and bigger screens that make anywhere, anytime shopping effortless," said Josh Harding, vice president of global operations at RetailMeNot, Inc. "As the United States continues to lead e-commerce growth, and mobile commerce maintains its momentum, retailers globally should reevaluate the prioritization of impending technology investments to ensure that they have an optimized mobile experience and fully capture this meaningful revenue opportunity."

The International Opportunity for Retailers

Outside the United States, where e-commerce sales are projected to grow by 14% in 2015, other markets in North America and Europe continue to be attractive for retailers interested in a bigger international base of customers.

In particular, Germany, France and the United Kingdom combined represent 82% of all e-commerce sales among the eight countries surveyed in Europe. Projected growth rates are as follows:

Germany: 23% projected year-over-year e-commerce growth, and ranked second in sales among EU studies surveyed
France: 17% projected year-over-year e-commerce growth, and ranked third in sales among EU studies surveyed
United Kingdom: 16% projected year-over-year e-commerce growth, and ranked first in sales among EU studies surveyed
Honorable mention goes to Poland, which despite a smaller base of sales expects a 21% projected year-over-year e-commerce increase among countries surveyed in Europe
Bringing up the rear among all countries surveyed in Europe and North America, Canada represents the slowest e-commerce growth rate (13%)

Credit Cards, Online Payments Enable Sales

In a world where credit card adoption and online payments have fueled the e-commerce opportunity, Canada does hold one distinction: it leads the United States and other countries surveyed with online purchases made via credit cards. Credit cards are used for 64% of transactions versus 42% in the United States. Alternative online payment methods, such as PayPal, seem most dominant in the United Kingdom and Poland, where they make up 20% of online payments.

For more information, visit: http://www.retailmenot.com/corp/resources/.

Study Methodology

This independent report into online retail sales and projected sales from 2013 to 2016 has been commissioned by RetailMeNot, Inc., the world's largest marketplace for digital offers, and carried out by the Centre for Retail Research based in Nottingham, England. The report has been prepared by Professor Joshua Bamfield, the director of the Centre for Retail Research.

The study covers eight European markets as well as the United States and Canada. The European countries researched for this study are France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, Spain, Sweden and the United Kingdom, with a combined population of 382.73 million. The population of the United States is 316.1 million and Canada's is 35.2 million (2013–14 mid-year figures used throughout). Data from the following sources has been used to establish these forecasts: government statistical sources and analyses, telephone interviews with 100 major retailers from all types of business (20%+ of national retail sales) and interviews into consumer trends with 500 consumers in both Canada and the Netherlands and 1,000 consumers in each of the other eight countries (9,000 in total).

The study examines the final sale of merchandise to the consumer through stores and online. It excludes food services, the sale of automobiles, gas and fuel, tickets, vacation travel, insurance and banking.

About RetailMeNot, Inc.

RetailMeNot, Inc. (http://www.retailmenot.com/corp/) operates the world's largest marketplace for digital offers. The company enables consumers across the globe to find hundreds of thousands of digital offers for their favorite retailers and brands. During the 12 months ended December 31, 2014, RetailMeNot, Inc. experienced nearly 700 million visits to its websites, and during the three months ended December 31, 2014, monthly mobile unique visitors totaled 21.2 million. In 2014, RetailMeNot, Inc. estimates $4.4 billion in paid retailer sales were attributable to consumer traffic from digital offers in its marketplace. The RetailMeNot, Inc. portfolio includes RetailMeNot.com, the largest digital offer marketplace in the United States; RetailMeNot.ca in Canada; VoucherCodes.co.uk, the largest digital offers marketplace in the United Kingdom; Deals.com in Germany; Actiepagina.nl, a leading digital offers site in the Netherlands; Bons-de-Reduction.com and Ma-Reduc.com, leading digital offers sites in France; Poulpeo.com, a leading digital offers site with cash back in France; andDeals2Buy.com, a digital offers site in North America. RetailMeNot, Inc. is listed on the NASDAQ stock exchange under the ticker symbol "SALE." Investors interested in learning more about the company can visit http://investor.retailmenot.com.