The Evolution of Ecommerce to Mobile Ecommerce
Everything and everybody is going mobile these days and the evolution of ecommerce is primarily driven by the advent of smartphones and tablets that ensure people are connected wherever they go. Mobile communication is not limited to sending and receiving phone calls or SMS but it is now used to find new clients for your business.
Ecommerce has travelled a huge distance from its PC days ad today there are many businesses that are migrating their Internet website to a mobile website. Mobile e-commerce is now picking up very fast as there are plenty of customers who would like to order their goods through smartphone. Today established retailers such as Staples, Wal-Mart, and Barnes & Noble are working towards establishing better mobile channels to attract more customers.
Mobile commerce offers more convenience
Buying products such as books, clothes, CDs, pendrives, USBs and earphones is more convenient through a mobile device. Paying through mobile website and receiving products in time is something what people demand these days leaving retailers and manufacturers no choice but to design a website that facilitates purchasing goods through a smartphone.
Forrester Research notes that in 2012, smartphones will account for 3 percent of e-commerce and this will reach 7 percent in 2016.
Another study by uSamp shows that a third of US men have purchased digital content by using their mobile devices. Of those surveyed, 23 percent said they used m-commerce to buy movie or event tickets, and one-third said they use mobile devices to buy consumer electronics.
All these factors points towards the importance and need of effective designing of a mobile website. A mobile website should open quickly in the browser and a person looking for products should not be made to wait for several minutes to navigate to the place he wants to visit. Many websites take quite a lot of time to open properly on smartphones so it is imperative for businesses to get a dedicated mobile website for their products and services.
For those who are using mobiles even while in travel can easily log on to different mobile website and click to make a purchase they wish. In other words, now all e-commerce websites are becoming mobile based in order to reach out to customers quickly.
Winning the confidence and trust of customers
Mobile commerce has definitely come a long way but businesses have to ensure that customers are not worried about online payments and have a hassle free checkout experience. Customers should know that they are not getting malware if they visit some sites and also their identity is protected if they buy products via their mobiles. To make the most of this opportunity m-commerce sites need to make the purchase journey as short as possible, and one way of doing this is by saving the customer’s credit card and delivery details so future purchase can be completed just by entering a username and password.
An August 2012 survey commissioned by PayPal shows that 62 per cent of non mobile shoppers think mobile transactions are not safe enough. Also, 45 per cent of those surveyed said that the small screen size of their smart phones is not good enough to see products clearly. Shopping through smartphones can be made easy if retailers introduce a search box to help customers find quickly what they are looking for and since there is very little scope for navigation, the search box should deliver quick results. Businesses can also add social media to mobile websites as it allows sharing content every day through Facebook and twitter. Mobile e-commerce website can surely be shared among friends and relatives and is today one of biggest sources to build web presence in a strong and professional way.
Although obliging to new rules and new methods of web design through mobile website are adopted, it is always in favor of customers to help them in an efficient way. The regular practice of designing and bringing the best to the online platform that is exclusive and unique will definitely win the confidence and trust of customers. This is really recommended in many ways not only to optimize the mobile website businesses but also to reach the customers who are in need of regular online services through mobile shopping.
Thanks to mobile commerce, customers who wish to shop online regularly for their needs no longer need to carry their laptop or sit on pc. The comfort of handy smartphone now offers convenient mobile websites that allow safety, security, privacy and protection for all shopping needs.