Analysts at Monetate have predicted that 2015 will be the year in which retailers that offer shopping online to consumers will start seriously paying attention to the benefits of using mobile platforms and social networking sites, to engage with their customers, according to CBR Online.

Although purchases made from smartphones and tablets were up by 45 per cent last year, there is still a need for retailers to enhance the services that they make available to people who prefer accessing e-commerce solutions from their portable devices.

Study spokesperson, Lucinda Duncalfe, said that a combination of improving m-commerce sites and a wider array of ways to pay when carrying out safe shopping online from a smartphone, meant that retailers were clearly starting to pay attention to this area.

Social networking will also rise to prominence as a partner for e-commerce providers, with sites including Facebook and Twitter already embracing the idea of allowing people to add products to their digital baskets, without having to head to a third party site.

Meanwhile later in the year, the power of Black Friday and Cyber Monday could roll into one 30 day online shopping period, which analysts are beginning to refer to as Cyber Month.

Such flash sales and one day discounts, as have been seen in the past, may be eradicated leaving instead a pre-Christmas period during which prices are lowered and the number of people buying products online rises rapidly.

This may risk concentrating purchases into a smaller window to a greater degree than already occurs, but this change is being perpetuated, both by consumers habits and by the retailers that shape them.

People looking to shop online have never been in a better position to pick from a broad range of products and get the best price. So embracing mobile and social platforms is essential.