What is the Future of Mobile Shopping?
With the advancement of time, we are witnessing the speedy rise of mobile usage. Mobile usage and mobile commerce go hand in hand. As a result of changing shopper’s habits, m-commerce is growing rapidly.
Smartphones are taking over and shaping our present and the future of digital commerce. After Generation X and millennials, Generation Z is at the forefront of contributing factors of m-commerce surge.
Mobile Design
Mobiles phones are being designed to suit the consumers’ needs and maximize optimization. For example, online shopping has seen a great rise in recent years due to its convenience and ease.
According to studies, only a small percentage of online purchasing was done through mobiles up until the former part of 2015. Most consumers preferred the web or desktop. However, the number of mobile shoppers started rising with the income of improved mobile optimization.
Newly introduced features like the top navigation menu which allows users to select any category of products even if they’ve scrolled down, removal of tacky hero sliders etc. was done.
It was found in a study that around 82% of smartphone users purchased online through their mobiles in the later part of 2015. This data gives us a glimpse of the bright future of mobile shopping.
Companies are now reinventing the designs of their e-commerce sites with the help of custom WordPress development company. Their target is to attract more customers and ensure a smooth user experience.
Using Social Media to the Advantage
Studies have found that people spend an average of over 2 and a half hour on social media. 83% of all internet users have access to social media. The majority access the web using smartphones. Besides, some studies conclude that about more often than not consumers buy products or services online after learning about it on social media.
Promotion and advertisement of products on social media is a great plan to improve sales. Since people are already spending so much time on social media, it means more mobile traffic and hence it increases the chances of audience awareness and selling prospects.
Studies have also proven that consumers are mostly attracted towards click-on ads on social media as compared to common link ads. Popular social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest have introduced options for shopping. You can buy and sell products on these social selling channels to maximize sales.
A social media-centric advertisement policy has proven fruitful to many companies, example MVMT saw a 60% increase overnight in terms of mobile usage.
Bridging the Online-Offline Gap
Omnichannel customers are those who shop using their mobile devices as well as from retail stores. A substandard mobile shopping experience can drive away customers. Upstream Commerce Retail Intelligence has discovered that around 88% of customers prefer to search for their future purchases on the internet and then buy the products from a store.
Online-to-offline behavior aids consumers in comparing similar products on basis of some common parameters and in sorting products according to the lowest price etc. On the other hand, offline-to-online patterns show that 76% of customers look up products in a store before purchasing it online. The main motive was to avoid the queue at the counter and to find the lowest prices.
Nonetheless, it has been found that 82% of mobile phone users with internet access make use of their phone to find out about the products before actually purchasing it from a store. The key to increased Mobile commerce is to reduce online to offline differences.
Simpler Checkout Process
An elaborate and time-consuming checkout process can drive away your online customers. You need to be precise, especially if you get only a minority of online sales through smartphone users.
Always remember the rule less is more. Simplicity is the key to brilliance.
Online marketing and ecommerce organization- instructs to make the checkout process as plain sailing as possible. Fewer clicks, taps, and swipes results in a surge in number of customers and superior satisfaction level of customers.
Personalizing the whole cart-to-checkout process by including options to reorder the same item, record or change payment methods, gift-wrapping option, shipping address, billing address information changeability etc.
Ways to create a faster checkout process:
- Reduction in number of steps to purchase a product.
- Personalized experience where the customer can make the payment by his favoured and most frequently used method.
- Making it easier for customers by adding a ‘buy now’ button that doesn’t require the product to be added to the cart. Instead, it directly takes the customer to checkout
Simplicity is the key. An uncomplicated process will boost sales by enticing customers.
Optimized and Personalized Experiences
Holding the shopper’s attention is a crucial point for ecommerce retailers. They have to keep their customers actively engaged by creating individualized experiences. They display their services and products in such a way as to catch the eye of the user, so that potential buyers can turn into actual buyers. Magento 2 development services help to create customized e-commerce websites.
This can be done by the following methods:
- Optimizing the mobile webpage layouts. Customers are not going to spend a lot of time looking around for what they want. The page layout should be designed in such a way as to get your customers’ desired products in a jiffy. Easy product discovery.
- Using homepage widgets is a smart option to the in-demand products from their collection present in front of the users.
- Retailers also use personalized recommendations to grab their customers attentions.
If the customer’s location qualifies for free shipping, a message stating the same in the form of an offer is an easy yet poignant way to leave a long-lasting impact on the user’s mind. - Promotions based on a user’s activities and interests will help in creating an extensive customer base.
Improved SEO Services
Google creates a personalized experience for its users by showing ads of a particular category of products that the user is interested in. For example, if a user looks up jackets on Google search, and later they are browsing different information on other websites, ads will pop up directing the user to a retail site selling jackets. Sometimes even the prices or discount rates are displayed to attract the customer into clicking on the link.
Professional mobile SEO services help e-commerce retailers to create improved accessibility and usability, consulting, mobile-friendly web design, sitemaps, content optimization, link building, robot.txt implementation,, mobile optimization audits, keywords research and optimization mobile website design, local SEO, etc.
Usage of Chatbots
An upcoming trend in today’s business scenario is chatbots. A prevalent way of motivating customers to purchase items are emails, informing them about discounts or special offers, or reminding them about items left unpurchased in the cart. Most users don’t bother reading these emails or direct them to the spam folder, hence rendering their intent ineffective.
Conversely, chatbots communicate with users on a one-on-one basis. Millennial prefer shopping online more than Gen X. Since millennials are inclined more towards texts rather than emails for communication, this approach appeals to the masses. Texts are quick, easy and more convenient. Chatbots prove to be useful here. A study by Oracle has shown that 80% of businesses are either using chatbots as a means or plan to incorporate them very soon.
Faster Page Loading
The data loading speed of a shopping site is a prime factor in holding its customers. The slow loading speed can frustrate customers and drive them away. Making the website visually aesthetic is important, but what’s more important is giving the customer an all-inclusive wholesome experience.
Local Search Pop-ups
About half the percentage of mobile users search about local stores and the available products, or items they want to buy on their phones before going to the store in person.
Mobile commerce can be boosted in ways like:
- Advertising your products so that you come up in local searches
- Mentioning the prices on a landing webpage
- Using the pin code to trace a map of nearby stores and their locations
- Creating your own local pages for your brand to improve business prospects.
- Investing in sites that provide a local review for improving the ranking. Higher-ranking stores show up at the top. Studies have shown that 90% of customers rely on reviews than claims of a seller.
- Include keywords related to your business and offers or promotions that you’re in Google AdWords makes your business pop up. Also, add a phone number so that customers can call for any inquiry
This actually points to the merging of mobile commerce and physical commerce, but it also drives a certain portion of consumers towards mobile shopping.
Progressive Web Apps
A poor buying experience makes most shoppers abandon their carts. Compared to the percentage of people spending hours on their smartphones, only a tiny percent generates online sales, especially through mobiles. Shopping habits of customers are changing, and it’s the job of the retailers to keep up with it.
Retails apps were earlier seldom downloaded or used by the majority of us out there. They were hardly accessed thrice in a day. The main reason was that they failed to maintain consumer engagement. But with progressive Web Apps, a new dynamic has been created.
They provide fluid interaction, better user experience, home-screen launch icons, adapting to the host’s device, improved speed, and are functional across all platforms and browsers. This has led to increased mobile engagement.
It is up to every individual ecommerce retailer how they want to take the holistic approach towards progressive apps that comply with their engagement schemes and mobile commerce.
Progressive web apps are best suited for online retailers who have an elaborate underlying structure and extensive range of products and services.
The Future of Mobile Commerce
Mobile commerce and brick-and-mortar stores have been rivals for a long time now. The offline stores had an edge up until a few years back. The tables have turned with time.
When mobile commerce started providing strict competition, the smart retailers decided to use this factor to their advantage and embraced the mobile phone. They made their sites user-friendly and came up with apps. They have understood the importance of mobile commerce.
Research has shown that since 2015, apps have been more useful in successfully turning traffic into sales as compared to retail websites. Mobile commerce is fast-paced and user-friendly, the two most coveted things our new tech-savvy generations want.
In today’s fast-paced world, an optimized, accessible mobile design is the ultimate requirement. Online shopping through smartphones is growing at a record pace as the new and improved user experiences are garnering in more and more customers.
With all the research and planning for improvements in this area that are going on, mobile commerce definitely has a bright future. It already forms a major segment of digital commerce and is expected to grow even more in the upcoming years.
