Author: Lucy

Mobile commerce performs well on Thanksgiving day

Mobile commerce has performed well, even ahead of Black Friday. The holiday season has been expected to be a major success for the mobile commerce industry, but this success may be quickly exceeding the expectations of retailers and those invested in the mobile commerce industry itself. According to data from IBM’s Benchmark service, a platform that provides ongoing measurements of the performance of more than 500 retail companies in the U.S., shows that consumers have been eager to kick start their holiday shopping.

Data shows mobile traffic spikes on Thanksgiving

According to the data from the Benchmark service, online sales spiked 14% on Thanksgiving day, with each sale accounting for an average of $132. The data highlights a strong showing from the mobile commerce sector, where a veritable tide of consumers have been using their mobile devices to purchase products online and at the few retail locations that were open on the holiday. The data shows that the number of consumers using a mobile device to visit a retail site reached 26% on Thanksgiving day, up from the 15% it had been in the previous year.

Apple suggests shopping on holidays becoming more socially acceptable

Technology giant Apple suggests that this is largely due to the concept that mobile commerce and shopping has become more socially acceptable on the day of the holiday. In the past, shopping on Thanksgiving day may have been considered somewhat anti-social, if not wholly impossible due to it being a federal holiday. The stigma surrounding holiday shopping may be diminishing, however, as IBM sees a significant uptick in the number of consumers that are actually purchasing products from their mobile devices. Approximately 9% of all mobile traffic is coming from iOS devices, such as the iPhone and iPad, according to Apple.

Data expected to show capabilities of mobile commerce

The data from the IBM Benchmark service shows that mobile commerce certainly kicked off the holiday shopping season, which began nearly 24 hours before Black Friday. Black Friday remains the most important day of the year for the retail industry, however, and the data for such a major shopping day is expected to further show how powerful mobile commerce is becoming with consumers.

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.