Amazon's Mobile Commerce Sales Top $1 Billion

Any doubters as to the potential that mobile brings to the ecommerce industry need only look at Thursday's second-quarter earnings report from Amazon, in which the company revealed that its worldwide mobile commerce sales in the past year surpassed $1 billion.

It was the first time that Amazon has released any revenue figures related to mobile commerce, and the company did not disclose how much of those sales came from Kindle owners buying e-books. But Amazon has taken significant steps beyond the Kindle to develop its mobile commerce platform over the past year, including the October launch of 1-Click checkout for its mobile-optimized website.

Thursday's report would render those efforts a huge success and serve as an example for other merchants mapping their own mobile strategies.