Being able to buy anything you want with the touch of a finger may have seemed like a fantasy a few years ago, but it’s now a reality. Merging touchscreen technology with one-click shopping, touch commerce allows consumers to buy products easily from their phones. After linking their payment information to a general account and enabling the feature, customers are able to buy everything from clothes to furniture with just a fingerprint.

According to Deloitte, this is one of the biggest things to hit eCommerce in recent years with

purchases of this type expected to increase by 150 percent this year alone and retailers in almost every industry anticipating an increase in sales directly related to this new technology.

Deloitte predicts that in 2016 the number of individuals who use a third party touch-based payment service to make a purchase on their mobile devices will reach 50 million regular users, an increase of 150 percent. Touch commerce enables a customer to make a secure first-time or subsequent payment on any merchant’s website or app without having to provide registration or log-in details. Authorizing the transaction simply requires the application of a fingerprint or two touches of a screen.

According to Deloitte, a third of respondents in developed markets browse shopping websites/apps on a weekly basis, but only nine percent make a purchase. This is consistent with several other studies that have found mobile to be an upper-funnel shopping activity. However, when consumers attempt to purchase on mobile, they often fail. According to Deloitte, cart abandonment on mobile can be as high as 80 percent.

Touch commerce could have a significant impact on reducing cart abandonment while improving the mobile checkout experience. However, retailers will only reap the benefits of touch commerce when mobile sites and apps are user friendly and appealing. As Deloitte explains a simplified checkout process is not the only prerequisite for mobile commerce. Marketers still have a lot of work ahead of them to improve the mobile experience. Touch commerce has the potential of increasing m-commerce sales but it’s only one piece of the puzzle to increasing sales on mobile devices.