5 Things Every Retailer Should Know About Mobile Commerce

Despite the increasing popularity of smart phones and tablets over the past five years, there are many retailers who have not taken an advantage of mobile commerce for their business. In this multi-screen world that we live, failing to offer user-friendly mobile-shopping experience to your consumers, is just losing you a big amount of money on the table.

Mobile commerce is proving to be a powerful engine for both offline and online retailers. According to comScore, more than 60% of US web traffic on the nine largest retail websites in July 2014 came from users on mobile devices. With this in mind, retailers who have not taken an advantage of mobile commerce need to pay close attention to this platform shift to increase sales and revenue for their retail business.

This blog will highlight 5 mobile commerce facts to enlighten retailers tap into the cash cow, which sums US$230 billion of the overall mobile commerce market. (Source – Wikipedia)

M-commerce – The hottest trend for retailers

As per Forrester Research World Mobile And Smartphone Adoption Forecast, 2014 To 2019 (Global), the number of global smartphone subscribers is expected to reach 3.5 billion by 2019, crossing the 50% mark for smartphone penetration by population in 2017 and reaching 59% by 2019, up from 28% in 2013. The newly accepted norm is underscored by the fact that the next 1.5 billion subscribers joining the market by 2019 will come from only 12 countries, compared with 34 countries for the first 1.5 billion smartphone subscribers.

This is good news for many retailers, especially small retailers who want to target local crowd.

Retail apps dominates mobile commerce

A year-end report by Flurry (a yahoo-owned mobile analytic firm) mentioned that mobile app usage had seen an immense growth last year, with overall app usage by 76% in 2014. And, as per analysis, shopping lifestyle and shopping app recorded a triple-digit growth which you can see in the graph shown below

If you have dragged your decision of coming with a mobile app for your brand, you need to act upon it now! And, while creating an app for your brand, ensure your customers are getting more comfortable shopping on their smartphones or tablets, when compared to any big retailers, marketplaces, shopping platforms, or brick-and-mortar store.

M-commerce – Increase in retail sales

A report from eMarketer on US retail m-commerce sales will show how mobile devices are proving to be one of the major component of digital shopping landscape, with both smartphones and tablets contributing high level of e-commerce sales.

According to report, eMarketer predicts that by 2017, mobile will account for 26.0% of US retail e-commerce sales. And, U.S. Retail m-commerce sales is expected to reach nearly $113.57. This includes products and service ordered online, irrelevant to the payment made using their smartphones, or in store. Tablet commerce is emerging as the key for the overall mobile commerce, however it’s proven that smartphones provide more attainable access to the a larger segment of consumers, in both developed and emerging markets.

Showrooming – The latest mobile retail trend  

With showrooming (a practice whereby consumers use their smartphone to look at products and with the expertise of the store’s associates — ultimately make their purchases online from a competitor, for a lower price) going mainstream for e-commerce, brick and mortar retail store owners had to battle back against showrooming and come up with reverse showrooming. While mobile app proved to be a bliss for online retailers, brick-and-mortar store owners experienced a reduce in sales. This enforced traditional store retailers to come up with reverse showrooming tactics, and one of the best example from a leading retailer Wal-mart – had come up with an effective reverse showrooming practice that prompted to enter “In-Store Mode.” This app allowed customers to  scan product barcodes for price checking,  learn more about products and special offers displayed in-store as QR Codes – and easy access to the Local Ad product list and general store information.

Retail category mobile browsing behavior – Smartphone v/s Tablets  

All mobile touch-points have very different characteristics that tends to yield significant behavioral differences. A recent comScore analysis of several online retail categories was conducted to understand consumer browsing preference on smartphones and tablets, relative to their behavior on desktop computers. Categories such as movies and books significantly over-indexed for both mobile platforms, while others such as comparison shopping significantly under-indexed.

Apparel and Home Furnishings both significantly over-indexed for browsing behavior on tablets, while they both under-indexed on smartphones. This results, that categories like apparel, which attract a higher degree of virtual window-shopping given their visual appeal, are more suited to a tablet environment. So, if you are considering a mobile app for your retail brand, you need to understand that one size does not necessarily fit all in the world of mobile.

Wrapping up

Understanding the importance and advancement of mobile commerce trends in the retail industry, you can deploy assets and marketing resources in the correct way.

Source Links:

www.forrester.com

www.flurry.com

www.emarketer.com

http://walmartlabs.blogspot.in/2012/05/mobilizing-our-store-customers.html

www.comscore.com