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M-commerce is experiencing more widespread acceptance

Rebecca | March 22, 2013

The results of newly released research have pointed to greater adoption of shopping over smartphones and tablets.

Stibo Systems has just released the results of its 2013 Consumer Retail Survey, which indicated that the number of consumers who have used a smartphone, tablet, or other mobile device in order to purchase a product through m-commerce has increased by 19 percent over the last year.

This was said to have reflected a considerably rising acceptance of shopping over this channel.

Among the respondents who took part in the survey, 59 percent said that they had bought something using m-commerce. Three out of every four participants said that it was “very important” to be able to learn more about a product through online information. This was an increase of 8 percent from having been 67 percent in 2012. According to the report about the survey, this indicated that consumers are becoming more savvy shoppers.

The report stated that consumers are becoming more selective and sophisticated through m-commerce.

They are using the devices to inform themselves about their purchases before they make their decisions and m-commerce is beginning to play a growing role in that behavior.

According to the Stibo Systems U.K. managing director, Mark Thorpe, “Although every year is hailed as the ‘year of the mobile’, there is sufficient evidence in these results to demonstrate that mobile is now a legitimate channel for retailers, particularly with the recent rapid adoption of tablet devices.”

Thorpe went on to say that if retailers want to take full advantage of the benefits of m-commerce, then they will need to start paying attention to it not only to make sure that consumers are enjoying the experience that is being provided, but also to be able to meet their expectations. The report indicated that this would help these companies to avoid disappointing their customers, which could be a rapid road to losing potential customers and many sales over the long term.

The survey’s results not only indicated that m-commerce is being more widely accepted, but also that it is becoming increasingly important to the decision that a consumer will have as to whether or not he or she will actually make a purchase, and where.

Mobile marketing from Facebook may soon include hashtags

Rebecca | March 20, 2013

The social networking giant may be making yet another aggressive move to outdo Twitter.

According to a Wall Street Journal report that is making the circuit of all of the mobile marketing media, sources who have knowledge from their positions close to the issue are stating that Facebook is working on incorporating hashtags into its service.

This type of marker is currently associated with use on Twitter, one of the social network’s main competitors.

The report said that the hashtag markers will be a part of its group conversation designations. The implications that this could have on mobile marketing opportunities are practically countless, as it will help to establish more solid links among people, groups, topics, and other areas.

It has not yet been made clear how or when mobile marketing and hashtags will be implemented.

However, the sources suggested that Facebook hashtags aren’t something that will be introduced immediately, only that this mobile marketing effort has been added to the list for future efforts. This will not be the first time that a Facebook owned company will use the designation technique, but it would be the first time that it would occur on the social network, itself.

For instance, Instagram, a company owned by Facebook, already uses hashtags not as mobile marketing, but as a technique that allows users to organize the images that they have in their accounts.

At the moment, according to the report, Facebook is simply “testing whether to follow Twitter’s lead and allow users to click on a hashtag to pull up all posts about similar topics or events so it can quickly index conversations around trending topics and build those conversations up, giving users more reason to stay logged in and see more ads.”

Mobile marketing has become a top priority for Facebook, which is starting to recover from its disappointing IPO performance through just that ecosystem. The company has made considerable investments into the channel and is now seeing the returns on those efforts. It is believed that this will only continue to be the direction taken by the largest social network in the world.