Nowadays, people live on their smartphones. They spend a major part of their day checking their social media accounts, messaging, watching movies, and shopping on their mobile devices. E-commerce stores cannot ignore this fact. Therefore, to stay competitive, expand sales volumes, and meet customer needs, they should optimize their web stores for phones.
Mobile commerce, often referred to as m-commerce, is the process of selling (by online merchants) and buying (by shoppers) products and services via mobile devices. In other words, m-commerce is the e-commerce carried out on smartphones. Taking this nuance into consideration, online merchants should ensure that their website is mobile-friendly and responsive to adjust to mobile devices with different screen sizes: if the website is not mobile-friendly enough, they can take the chance to hire a good e-commerce application development company to make the UI and UX more attractive for iOS and Android devices.
Components of Mobile Commerce
M-commerce isn’t merely the process of adding an item to the cart and paying using a smartphone. It comprises the following components.
- Searching for products
- Reading customer reviews
- Comparing similar products
- Consuming digital content such as watching product demo videos or reading user guides
- Downloading e-commerce apps
- Using mobile banking or payment apps
Why is Mobile Commerce the Future?
Online shoppers love the opportunity of having shops and thousands of products at their fingertips. It allows them to choose an item and buy it while walking in the street, working at an office, or sitting at a café. That’s why the m-commerce trend is growing rapidly with no intention of slowing down or regressing. Online store owners should keep up with this trend by building mobile software for their businesses. Alternatively, they can also optimize their e-commerce website (https://fireart.studio/e-commerce-website-development-company/) for mobile devices. However, statistics show that mobile sites are less convenient, and people prefer to download the store and have it on their smartphones. Now, let’s see several reasons why mobile commerce is considered to be the future of e-commerce.
1. Mobile Advertising is More Effective
Statistics show that users of mobile devices are more responsive to ads than desktop users. The CTR of mobile ads is 0.15% higher as opposed to desktop ads. There are two reasons. First, people spend much more time on their phones than on computers. Second, computer desktops are large, and users don’t notice lots of information on the screen. Phone screens, on the contrary, are small, and people notice everything appearing on them.
2. Leveraging SMM in Mobile Commerce
Statistics show that almost 4 million people worldwide have social media accounts where they spend on average 145 minutes daily. Online stores can use this information in several ways. Besides the m-commerce app, they can open an online shop on social media, e.g., Facebook Shop. They can advertise on social media.
3. Building Customer Loyalty
M-commerce apps allow planning and executing customer loyalty programs. On the desktop, you cannot engage with customers unless they access your website. But on mobile devices, you can use push notifications, SMS, and pop-ups to inform them about your new arrivals and discounts.
4. Simple Payment Via Digital Wallets
The availability of digital wallets accelerates and simplifies the payment process. There is no need to take your credit card with you and take it from your purse every time you want to pay. Instead, customers can install Google or Apple Pay on their phones and use them for fast payment.
5. Gain Valuable Customer Information
In the case of physical stores, customers purchase an item and immediately leave. Retailers sell products and get the money but don’t know who their customers are or where they live. With mobile commerce, your app can capture this information for you. Your marketing and sales teams can use it to target potential buyers and identify one-time and loyal customers.
Final Thoughts
Mobile commerce is the future of the e-commerce world. People spend an unbelievably huge amount of time on their phones. Smart traders use this fact in their favor. By developing e-commerce software for mobile devices, their store appears at the fingertips of customers. As a result, it boosts sales, allows building customer loyalty, and creates better marketing opportunities.
