Mobile devices are an essential part of our everyday activities, including shopping. Think of it: the US alone has over 178.7 million mobile buyers, and this number is projected to grow by 10 million by the end of 2025. The growing number of mobile shoppers propels more mobile-generated sales. And the merchants should consider the changes in the way people shop and the way the global market shifts to adapt to new conditions.
The question is, how to make your m-commerce game strong? You’ll find the answers in this article. Let’s start with the mobile commerce definition.
All m-commerce is e-commerce, but not all e-commerce is m-commerce. Let’s explain this.
In e-commerce, you use all electronic devices that make purchasing online available (laptops, desktop computers, smart TVs, etc.). Mobile commerce, or m-commerce, is a part of e-commerce that refers to the use of wireless handheld devices for handling various commercial transactions online. To the devices that make m-commerce possible belong:
With the help of point-of-sale (POS) terminals, nearfield communication technology (NFC), and the Internet, they authorize, initiate, and confirm the exchange of money during the purchase. Most common types of mobile commerce include mobile banking, in-app purchasing, digital marketplaces, and digital wallets. Let’s talk about them in more detail.
Based on the transaction type, mobile ecommerce is divided into:
The popularity and beneficial features of m-commerce make it appealing to dabble in and develop, especially if a merchant already has an e-commerce website. While it can be a solid basis for commerce transactions, the merchant might need to request third-party system integration services to unlock additional marketing opportunities, and ensure a smooth shopping experience and secure payments.
Besides banking operations, there are two users of mcommerce: the merchant and the customer. It’s important to know the perspective of both before making your business mobile-friendly.
New technologies make mobile shopping easier and more convenient, and these are not the only benefits that come to mind.
From 24/7 availability on the market to omnichannel experience, m-commerce has plenty of perks for the merchant. Take a look at the full list below.
Customers who shop online look for three main things in their shopping process: time efficiency, product information availability, and safety during check-outs or returns. A survey shows that while 76% of consumers prefer mobile shopping because it’s fast, only 22% find it convenient due to the nature of the medium (smaller screen compared to the desktop). To win the mobile users’ hearts, developers of m-commerce platforms should apply UX and human-centered design best practices.
Besides convenience, mobile shopping is praised for faster transactions and browsing. For example, customers who shop from the app most likely have their payment and check-out information saved, so they only need a few clicks to finalize the order.
Constant engagement with prospects through various media enhances the chance of them buying from you and becoming your client. M-commerce refers to the strategy that can’t be ignored in the world where the screens of mobile devices are palm extensions.
Think of it: you can promote your brand on social media and some of 4.16 bn mobile social media users will view it. You can also build and transform your strategy around ‘omnitude’ – Sephora’s executive-coined word to describe the company’s readiness to provide a seamless experience through various channels. Sephora has a mobile strategy written into their brand concept – just check it out!
Geolocation can also be used indoors, especially in the large shopping malls with a high probability of customers not even finding the store they wanted. IKEA app, for example, has a feature that allows users to find the products in stores, thus improving the service and increasing client satisfaction.
Push notifications (PN) are an alternative or additional form of how a business can engage the clients or prospects at any stage of the buyer’s journey. Social ad and email marketing, of course, may remain a part of the strategy, but let’s be honest: people are tired of receiving emails that have no personal value. On the contrary, push notification, SMS, or in-app messages can inform the clients about the items they are interested in, promotions they’ve already used in the past, or updates regarding their wish list. A few stats on how PNs improve business:
If your business deals with event management, push notifications can remind your clients not to miss updates on the shows. Just like Ticketmaster did. Alongside the updates, you can add information about upcoming shows to boost ticket sales.
But managing push notification also has its rules. You want to know when it’s best to send them, how often your users want to receive them, and what topics they are most interested in. Here’s why you’d better survey your existing or new clients regarding the push notifications:
There’s hardly any mobile device that doesn’t have a voice search option, and for m-commerce, it means another channel to promote your business. These stats explain why.
No doubt, voice search will be one of the dominating trends in e-commerce for the years to come, especially with the improvement of natural language processing technologies (NLP) and machine learning. It will result in more accurate and faster search results for the clients and increased revenue for the businesses.
With these perks, m-commerce will appear a very appealing fiend for digital businesses. We also want to mention a few associated drawbacks.
When you start developing your m-commerce strategy, keep in mind the following to avoid spending time and budget on ineffective actions and tactics.
Your business isn’t the only one that strives to get to potential consumers via mobile devices, but it’s your business’ mobile presence that can match you with the clients. The mobile or web app should deliver a unique user experience and contain the expected and useful features to drive engagement. Otherwise, you risk seeing your clients simply mute your app notifications.
Marketing fraud is another thing to always keep in mind and do everything to prevent it. Click spam (generating fake clicks on your pay-per-click ads) is a widespread problem in m-commerce. It drains your marketing budget and leads to miscalculation of prospects and organic traffic, creating strategies using incomplete data, and placing stakes on the de-facto ineffective but de-jure successful channels.
The more mobile apps are being developed, the more security issues occur. Why? On the one hand, some developers save on implementing strict security technologies. On the other hand, users don’t always check the app information before downloading it. Your task as a merchant is to ensure that all available security features like 2-factor authentication, ID verification, SSL certificates, and others are in place. Plus, you need to inform your clients how you collect and process their data and remind them to secure their information.
Creating the mobile app means you’ll need to optimize it constantly for it to be functional, up-to-date, and appealing. On the one hand, there are mobile platform updates, on the other – the fast-changing needs of users. There are also some technical issues.
Mobile conversion rates lag primarily because of small screen sizes. That’s why merchants should compensate for that gap with mobile-friendly UX, fast loading speed, convenient and easy-to-navigate menu.
If m-commerce was essentially the same e-commerce on the smaller screen at its outset, it has established a few trends that still stay strong. Here’s what to expect in 2024.
Not every trend may be suitable or needed for your business, so you need to consider the peculiarities of your audience, your business, and the goals you want to achieve. Allocate your resources wisely and create a working m-commerce strategy.
M-commerce meaning has already firmly entrenched itself in global digital commerce and marketing, so you won’t miss out if you start planning your strategy now whether you already have a website or plan its development as well.
Setting up m-commerce will help increase the engagement rate, reach broader audiences, promote deals and special offers, collect data for analytics, and know the customer’s preferences. This process, however, requires thorough preparation and a skilled developers team like Elogic.
As an ecommerce web development company, Elogic specializes in cross-platform app and PWA development based on your needs, business peculiarities, and budget.
Bring commerce to your customers' phonesDevelop a mobile solution to drive sales and your business growth
