Based on new data from Nielson, mobile platforms are starting to affect commerce more and more everyday. 79% of respondents in their recent survey said they had shopped with their smartphone or tablet. And when it comes time to make the purchase, 42% of tablet owners said they purchased items on their device, while 29% of smartphone owners went ahead and made the purchase on their phone.
Due to the differences in form factor, we are seeing differences in how each device is used relative to commerce. More portable, smartphones are being used for in-store research and handling tasks on the go. For things like finding a store we see a strong difference with 73% of smartphone owners using their devices for this versus 42% of tablet owners. Smartphones are also regularly used for shopping lists (42% versus 16% on tablets). We see similar differences when it comes to mobile coupons (32% v 11%).
Information like this is very helpful when designing mobile apps for your business as you can cater to the natural tendencies of users. You see some areas of usage that are strong on both devices, such as for price-checking where we see numbers like 62% for smartphones versus 52% on tablets. Both devices are regularly used for research before a purchase, with people preferring the tablet 66% over the smartphone at 57%. Tablet owners are also more likely to read product reviews by a small margin of 56% versus 45% for smartphones.
These results are not that surprising considering the growth of usage of these devices. In light of this savvy businesses are building mobile applications to meet these usage trends and propel their brands. Keep in mind that there are many shopping scenarios. Tablet applications are perfect for preshopping research while smartphone applications should be designed with features catering to shoppers that are on the go.
The latest data is showing tremendous growth in mobile commerce and why not? Its quick, easy and convenient.
Shopping via mobile devices has been shown to have grown an impressive 254% year over year by IMRG. On top of that, users are using their smartphones to make price comparisons or locate stores even if they aren’t making purchases via mobile applications.
With all this growth, there are still tremendous opportunities for your business to jump into this market and make a huge splash, especially when it comes to tablets. Surprisingly, just 10 of the UK’s top online retailers cater to tablet shoppers and only 26% of the IMRG/Hitwise Top 100 Online Retailers had iPad apps with only 20% offering Android tablet apps.
While more businesses offer smartphone applications, some stores haven’t even caught up with the mobile application market yet with 43% having no iPhone applications and 63% with no Android applications. This means there is a terrific opportunity for your business to jump in and grab market-share in the mobile retail arena.
Beyond simply looking at mobile retail, we often suggest to business to look at the role that mobile plays in a consumer’s shopping process. Are consumers using mobile applications to look for reviews or compare products? Most likely the answer is yes and there is a tremendous opportunity here for the savvy business person.
More and more businesses are building mobile applications and web sites to promote their businesses. But building an effective mobile application is more difficult than just pushing out your web content and shopping experience via a smartphone application. The differences start with the obvious, like the smaller form factor, but it doesn’t end there. There are other issues regarding consumer behavior and expectations that must be considered and addressed to get the most from your mobile application development project.
Mobile applications are currently a critical area that must be addressed by any business or organization that desires to stay relevant with their audience. Smartphone sales in 2012 are expected to be nearly 1.8 billion units and it is for this reason alone, it is important to strive to build an effective mobile application experience for your audience. But beyond just the numbers, mobile application development is a tremendous opportunity for your business.
With mobile applications and mobile commerce you can now go where your customers are rather than waiting for them to come to you. Mobile commerce truly enables customers to purchase products and services anytime and anywhere.
If you are like most people you have experienced the less than satisfactory user experience while accessing web content on a mobile device. Usually this is in the form of having to zoom and scroll left and right and up and down to fully view a page or image or even text. Clearly if you want to create an effective engagement with your audience, you will need to create build pages or applications perfectly optimized for the screen size of each device so users don’t need to zoom and scroll.
When preparing to create a mobile commerce experience, it’s important to keep in mind that mobile web sites and applications lend themselves to less complicated user experiences given the smaller form factor of the experience.
User expectations gravitate towards simple, easy-to-navigate user experiences. And it is simple to see why – the consumer is on the go, often busy or in the middle of a discussion and usually with a more limited keyboard experience. They obviously will want simplified user experience that can be completed quickly. Marketers should reduce the number of steps that users need to take to the essentials and present this in an easy to use format.
But mobile experiences are not just about limitations, there are several exciting opportunities created by the mobile environment. Geo-location is a powerful feature in improving user experiences. Merchants and advertisers are using geo-location to improve shopping experiences. Brands thinking about mobile should definitely include geo-targeting in their mobile user experiences if possible.Through this functionality merchants can provide value added information such as locations of the closest stores and even targeted merchandising based on local or regional preferences.
Mobile applications and web sites present exciting opportunities for manufacturers, retailers and marketers. Smartphone and tablet sales are just too big to ignore. But, you need to pay attention to both the limitations on the one hand and the expanded opportunities on the other to create an effective experience for your audience.