Tag: online shopping

As the number of smartphone using consumers increases, so is the demand for mobile experiences.

Businesses ranging from retail stores to hotels are discovering that they need to keep up with the pace of technology, which means that mcommerce is already a vital part of ensuring future survival.

It is no longer an option for companies to avoid these changes.

Over half of consumers in the United States now have smartphones, and a growing number of them have come to expect that their favorite places to shop will cater to their desire to use these devices to make purchases and reservations. Many business owners are under the impression that this will require a great deal of time and expense, but it is possible to take part in mcommerce without tying up a large amount of a marketing budget or resources.

The mcommerce experience allows companies to become closer with consumers.

A survey performed by IMB this year that spoke with CEOs of companies of various size showed that 88 percent felt that their highest priority between now and 2017 was to bring themselves closer to their customers. Mobile commerce is an exceptionally important way to reach this goal.

Although the standard web remains important, as the majority of consumers still use desktops and laptops for shopping and searching online, recent data from Google has shown that 15 percent of online activity comes from mobile sources. This is a market segment that is simply too large to ignore, and it grows bigger every month.

By using social and mcommerce, companies get develop a better understanding of who their customers are and what they want from their experience. It becomes possible to identify many more variables than is possible from in-store or standard online shoppers. Once that information has been obtained, the customer experience can be continually personalized and polished in order to make sure that each customer type can shop in the way that they enjoy the most.

Mcommerce profiles allow businesses to personalize each individual shopper or guest, so that marketing, information, and purchasing can all be geared toward their interests, expectations, and needs.

Tablet commerce spikes after work and on weekends, making it a part of the family living room.

Recent studies have clearly shown that evening hours – particularly after 6pm – bring a tremendous increase in the use of tablet computers (based on the number of keyword searches that are performed on Google).

Though many people are inclined to feel that this is an indicator that tablet use is much less important than that over desktops and laptops, as individuals use those larger devices while they’re at work and for a much longer period of time, what it is actually indicating is that tablets are more important than they used to be and there is a specific time in which those users can be targeted.

Tablets have become a part of the family living room and the experience for relaxing in the evening.

While televisions and desktop computers remain important, it is now important to note that 86 percent of American mobile device users are watching shows either on the devices themselves, or are watching them on television while they have the gadgets in their hands.

Despite the fact that the number of options for tablet computers remains relatively small, it is becoming an important part of the content consumption on evenings and weekends. As such, it opens the doors for the integration of several platforms for a fully connected experience.

According to a recent Nielsen study about the role being played by tablets and smartphones for commerce both online and in-store, 79 percent of mobile device owners said that they had used their device at some point in the shopping process.

Among tablet owners, 42 percent said that they had bought something using that device, while 29 percent of smartphone owners claimed that they had done the same. Smartphones are generally the top in-store choice for comparison shopping and research, simply due to their portability, but tablets are more likely to use their devices from home, and to both read and write product reviews.

Tablet commerce is becoming such an important part of online shopping that retailers and marketers are beginning to consider it a unique channel, instead of simply lumping it into the mobile commerce category with smartphones and other wireless portable devices.