Category: Mobile Commerce

Why You Must Start Concentrating On The Mobile Market Before It’s Too Late

The world is changing and you should be focusing a lot of your energy on the mobile market.

If the thought hasn’t even crossed your mind yet you should be really worried. Luckily it’s not too late, but you have to get in there quick because you’re leaving money on the table. I want to show you how big an opportunity you have in front of you.

Accessing the web

Do you remember when you had to use a dial-up connection to access the internet from the large computer sitting in your room? After a few years laptops and broadband came along, but now we can access the internet from a small device in our pocket. There is already a huge proportion of the population using their phone to go online on a daily basis.

Mobile spending spree

Just because people access the internet from their smartphone doesn’t necessarily mean they will actually buy anything from such a small handset. You would be forgiven for thinking people run home to do all their shopping on their PC or laptop, but they don’t which is great for you. A lot of people have purchased something using their phone.

Black Friday shopping

Black Friday gets a lot of businesses excited because everyone tries their hardest to throw all their money away. In 2012 people spent over 50 billion dollars, but have you any idea what percentage of those purchases were completed on a mobile device? Around 25% of buyers used a mobile device, but this includes tablets as well as mobile phones.

The future is bright

If you thought the numbers were in your favor at the moment you should wait a few years because it’s going to get even better. Even more people are going to start feeling safe enough to enter their credit card details on their phone, plus think about all the people who are going to buy a smartphone for the very first time.mobile marketing

Spontaneous shopping

The reason you need to prepare yourself for a mobile boom is because people are much more likely to buy things spontaneously when they’re on their phone. When someone is sitting at a PC they have time to think about what they’re doing. When they have a phone in their hand they will come across something and it’s much easier for them to click on the buy-now button.

The tablet revolution

We’ve touched on tablets already, but you’re probably more excited about smartphones because so many people are walking around with one. I wouldn’t discount tablets just yet because more and more people are buying them every day. In fact, it’s estimated one in three US internet users will own one within the next few years.

Get ready to move

I hope you now realize it’s vital you start concentrating on mobile because it’s going to make you a lot of money in the future. You don’t want to be chasing everyone in a few years’ time, because it’s guaranteed all the main players will be ready and waiting for the good times to roll in.

 

Author Byline:

The author of this post, Nancy Baker, is a part of the team at Want Buy Let Buy, an online electronics shop that specializes in mobile phone accessories. She has a keen interest in Apple products and enjoys sharing her tips and thoughts via blogging. You can also follow her on Twitter @Nancy Baker.

Summary

I’ve talked about why people need to concentrate on the mobile market because if they don’t they’ll be leaving a huge amount of money on the table.

Barriers to Online Payments: Making Lemons into Lemonade

It’s no secret that more consumers are turning to online shopping for the convenience it offers, but the truth is that online shopping is hardly without hassles. In fact, it can be a nightmare for merchants. While giant online merchants like Amazon and eBay have mastered the process of capturing an online sale, most ecommerce sites continue to limp through the process. Navigating the complex world of payments, including leveraging promotions effectively, automating subscription renewal and website optimization, the struggle for small to mid-sized merchants can seem unending. According to the latest research from Baymard Institute, the online shopping cart abandonment rates are as high as 67 percent—a startling percentage given that more consumers like to shop online, with online retail sales expected to grow between 9-12 percent in 2013.

Studies have shown that shopping cart abandonment rates increase when the payment complexities of the global marketplace come into play.  Language barriers, alternate payment types and currency issues all make up the reality of today’s online shopping experience. We took a comedic look at some of these challenges through the eyes of two budding entrepreneurs running their own e-lemonade stand.  Check out the short video clip here.

In the real world, there are many reasons why shoppers abandon their carts; below are three of the top reasons why shoppers close out before making that shiny new toy their own:

Lack of local currency or local payment types– ecommerce can be a great medium for businesses to open their doors online and offer goods and services worldwide. However, many businesses are leaving money on the table by alienating the global Mobile Shopping Cartaudience as they do not have the provisions to accept payments in multiple currencies and payment types. Businesses typically like customers to pay in the currency the business is comfortable accepting, not the currency the customer is interested in paying with. While it is understandable that trying to process payments from around the world in different currencies and payment types can be a logistical nightmare for merchants, it is actually a simple obstacle to address. The easiest way to overcome this is to integrate with a third-party payment platform that handles the complexities of payment on a merchant’s behalf so that the merchant can be more productive in fulfilling and processing orders rather than figuring out payments.

No local language, no thanks! – If customers can understand exactly what they are buying and being charged for, they will be more comfortable paying online. Unfortunately, most online payment platforms do not offer a fully localized checkout experience – including local languages and currencies leading to customer confusion and a high rate of cart abandonment.

No single-click buying – For returning shoppers, filling out personal information each time can be frustrating, especially if customers are using mobile devices. Single-click encourages shoppers to come back and easily purchase again; they don’t need to re-enter their information or even have a credit card handy.  Including a BuyNow button on any page, can go a long way in encouraging repeat buyers. (Think “I-tunes” buying on ecommerce sites.)

There are dozens of reasons why customers leave a website empty handed, but these simple tips, along with insight from this cute video about cart abandonment, can go a long way in increasing actual checkouts and ultimately, a merchant’s bottom line.

By Ralph Dangelmaier, CEO of BlueSnap