Mobile commerce reaches fever pitch during holiday season

The holiday season is settling in and mobile startups may stand to see major success this year as they engage mobile consumers in a new way. Keynote Systems, a developer of measurement products for mobile communications, has released a new study highlighting mobile startups. The study, called “Keynote Startup Shootout Index,” sheds some light on numerous startup retail organizations and how well they are accommodating the needs of mobile consumers. Given the growing importance of mobile commerce, ensuring that mobile users have a favorable experience through a retail platform is becoming a more important issue.

Retail startups putting focus on site performance

According to the study, retailer RueLaLa boasts of the best mobile performance than its competitors. The retailer offers fast load times for those accessing its website from smartphones and tablets. While the retailer’s website may not be ideal in terms of speed, as it receives an average of 38 new requests as the website loads, it does enable mobile consumers to access information on products more quickly than its competitors. This makes it relatively easier for consumers to purchase products online.

Loading times can greatly affect mobile commerce

Loading times have a significant impact on mobile commerce. The longer it takes to load a website, the less likely it is for a consumer to enjoy their shopping experience. Long loading times can lead to frustration that can derail any mobile commerce initiative. Loading times for mobile websites tends to become significantly problematic during the holiday season as the more people that access a website tend to put significant strain on the site’s servers. If consumers cannot access a retail site, they cannot actually purchase any products.

Success of mobile commerce provides encouragement to retail startups

Mobile commerce has inspired a new generation of retailers to enter into the field. Retail startups have placed a strong focus on the mobile sector. This is partly due to the success that many retailers saw during the 2011 and 2012 holiday season through their focus on mobile commerce. In order for retail startups to find this same degree of success, they must ensure that people can access their websites quickly and that these sites offer an enjoyable experience.

Smartphones and tablets are becoming so popular that some businesses have abandoned their traditional websites.

American consumers are using their mobile gadgets on an increasing basis in order to access websites, and this trend is reaching the point that companies have decided to abandon their websites on the traditional web in order to focus all of their attention on the smaller screen.

Though the desktop and laptop is far from being over, the number of smartphone users is skyrocketing.

A prime example of this complete switch occurred when the website, Hinge, which is designed to be an online matchmaker, had been having a rough time trying to draw potential daters. Instead of maintaining their site on the standard web, they decided to dump that effort and place all of their focus on apps that can be downloaded and used on smartphones and tablets. This occurred in February, and it gave the company the ability to build a stronger base of users.

The reason was that the company’s core market was young singles, a demographic that uses mobile gadgets.

People within that age group were very likely to use their devices for activities that they are capable of accomplishing quickly and easily no matter where they happen to be at the time. Though this may not work for something that requires more information or that is more involved, the Hinge concept worked very well as an app when compared to a standard website for laptops and desktops.

The chief exec of Hinge, Justin McLeod, explained that “More and more people are using mobile as opposed to desktop [computers] for things like dating.” He added that “That’s where the world’s going.”

The world still loves its desktops and laptops. However, as an increasing number of people own smartphones and tablets, and as they add to the number of activities that they accomplish over those devices, they are starting to find that tasks such as meeting people to date – which involve very basic searches and communications online – suit the smaller screen quite nicely.

Therefore, for companies that have services and products that are well suited to mobile gadgets, it can make sense to place all of their focus on those channels, instead of their old traditional websites.