Mobile marketing tips for small businesses
Posts tagged m-commerce growth
Offering Mobile Shopping is a Powerful Way to Boost Revenue
Dec 2nd
Data recently released by ComScore shows that offering customers the ability to shop via mobile devices has a very high probability of generating worthwhile returns for businesses. The reason for this conclusion, in ComScore’s words, is that (in terms of growth), “Mobile commerce is significantly outpacing e-commerce and bricks-and-mortar spending.”
The growth of m-commerce
The growth of m-commerce is impossible to ignore, and is easy to see given that the amount of time spent on retail shopping on various platforms is rapidly changing. Even just one year ago, desktop retail shopping accounted for 49% of all digital retail shopping time. This year, however, without taking into account holiday shopping beyond September, the number has declined to just 41%. Smartphones and tablets now account for 59% of such time, combined. This season’s holiday numbers, once known, will likely show that this trend has skewed further in the direction of mobile.
More and more, people are turning to their mobile devices for shopping.
Just for reference, mobile commerce is worth $41 billion annually, and is headed for $100 billion by 2017, if current trends hold. It’s not a small niche, and it’s not limited to special products, by any means. Consumers are buying anything and everything through their mobile devices, and a third are shopping via mobile exclusively! The size of this market and the variety of products purchased indicate that almost every retailer can enjoy increased sales by offering mobile shopping.
Taking advantage of m-commerce
ComScore’s data show that m-commerce is still a small percentage of total sales for certain categories, but the key is growth. Even if mobile sales are only 10 or 20% of total digital sales, the increased revenue can be a major boost for small businesses.
As ComScore observes, one of the main roads to earning more mobile sales currently runs through social media. Social media apps are among the most popular ways to spend time on a mobile device. By directing your social media traffic to an m-commerce platform, you can earn new sales and begin to cultivate an area of growing importance to retailers and other industries offering mobile sales.
What’s an m-commerce platform? It’s something that’s incredibly easy to create and manage, and that comes included with your Bizness Apps mobile website and app package.
It sounds cheesy, but increased revenue is truly only a few clicks away.
Learn more here!
Mobile Commerce Can’t Be Stopped
Jul 29th
Once upon a time, people were uncomfortable putting their credit card numbers into a computer, nevermind a cellphone.
Man, how times have changed!
Nowadays, it’s common to make purchases using anything found in your pocket except for your wallet. For those who aren’t familiar with it, this trend of making purchases with a mobile device such as a smartphone or tablet is known as mobile commerce or “m-commerce.”
Only a few short years ago, m-commerce didn’t merit a section on a pie chart showing the various channels of e-commerce. In 2010, it was only 3% of the total. But at the end of last year, it had grown to approximately 11%, representing $18.6 billion in total spending. And it is now projected to reach 15% of retail e-commerce by year’s end.
As Mobile Commerce Press reports, m-commerce has seen 136% growth from last year! M-commerce conversion rates have also doubled.
The reasons for this growth are many. Almost every part of the mobile sector is influencing, and influenced by, m-commerce. Here are just a few selected factors going into the boom:
• Increased investment. Investors are funding mobile startups, including app developers, and creating new companies that drive significant growth.
• Infrastructure improvements. Mobile infrastructure improvements continue to make the smartphone experience more useful, efficient, enjoyable, and fast. Where browsing experiences were to be slow and irritating, they are now quite acceptable on many networks. Purchase processes that would have been agonizing are now simple and clean.
• Increased mobile optimization. When websites were viewed on the first mobile browsers, it wasn’t a pretty experience. Now, with savvy website owners publishing simple, mobile-optimized sites, the browsing experience has improved by leaps and bounds. Purchasing activity has followed closely behind, as technology can now finally meet pent-up demand for smooth mobile browsing and m-commerce.
• Better devices. Smartphones and tablets with more robust features are keeping users increasingly engaged and active. In fact, within the next few years, mobile traffic and activity is projected to surpass desktop/laptop traffic and activity.
• Increased saturation. 54% of adults in the U.S. own smartphones, and this percentage is only increasing. What once was a novelty is now considered a must-have item by many. As feature-rich devices continue to be offered at lower and lower prices, we can expect that smartphone saturation will grow through reaching largely untapped market segments.
• Young consumers. Almost half of young teenage smartphone owners access the Internet primarily through a mobile device. Their high comfort level with smartphones is expected to lead to further acceptance of m-commerce and long-term increased spending.
