Category: Mobile Commerce

Mobile commerce becoming influence by social networking

Mobile commerce is growing more prolific around the world. It is becoming increasingly important for retailers and large brands to begin accommodating the needs of a growing consumer base that is tethered to mobile technology. As businesses begin to focus more on mobile commerce, consumers are also becoming increasingly reliant on the information they can find online, bringing more attention to the concept of social commerce. Social networks and other forms of online engagement are aiding in the continued evolution of mobile commerce by introducing more dynamic aspects to this still emerging sector.

Social commerce begins emerging among consumers

The concept behind social commerce is relatively simple: Consumers are able to find reviews for products on social networks and use this information to make informed purchase decisions. Peer reviews of products and services have long been valuable to consumers. These reviews often determine whether or not a consumer will purchase a particular product or support a particular brand. Bad reviews have, in the past, meant significant loss for a wide range of brands. As these reviews become increasingly mobile-centric, they are beginning to affect the purchasing habits of consumers.

Social media provides new platform for peer reviews

The average consumer relies heavily on social media to stay connected to friends and family as well as attain information of subjects they may be interested in. Consumers tend to share a great deal of information through social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter, and this sharing often includes information concerning the products they purchase. A recent study from Reevoo, a market research firm, shows that a growing number of consumers are accessing product reviews from their mobile devices. The report also shows a major spike in the reviews that consumers are posting from mobile devices. According to the report, reviews from mobile devices have grown by 212% since September 2011.

Social media may become intertwined with mobile commerce

Mobile commerce is becoming a more prominent part of the lives of consumers, which in turn is leading mobile commerce to become a more prominent part of social networking. Mobile commerce itself refers to much more than payments being made from a smartphone or tablet, it also encompasses mobile shopping and banking. Because of the always-connected, always-online nature of mobile commerce, social networking may soon become a major part of the way people use their mobile devices to purchase, review, and search for the products they may be interested in.

The results of a recent study have indicated that Apple smartphone users shop over applications the most.

Arbitron has just released the results of its most recent marketing research study, and has revealed that when it comes to m-commerce apps, iPhone owners are using them much more often than Android smartphone owners.

The difference in the proportion of device owners who are using these apps is a considerable one.

The study showed that 67.5 percent of iPhone owners also use m-commerce apps, when compared to Android smartphone owners, among whom only 43. 9 percent use these applications. This could suggest that for companies with apps, iPhone customers may be their sweetest plum.

There was also a difference in the amount that the device users were spending over m-commerce apps.

Among iPhone users, the average number of m-commerce trips over apps every month was 35. Moreover, they spent an average of 105.5 minutes shopping using their smartphones every month. On the other hand, Android smartphone users went on an average of 29.5 virtual shopping trips every month, during which time they spent an average 87.6 minutes on the task.

The report on the results of the survey did not suggest any conclusions as to why this difference exists between the m-commerce app usage habits of iPhone owners and those of Android smartphone owners.

There has been third party speculation that while there are about the same total number of apps available in both formats, there may be more m-commerce apps that are available exclusively for Apple devices. Moreover, there has been a trend of releasing some apps over iOS first, with a wait time of several weeks or months before an Android option becomes available. Instagram has been used as a well known example of this trend, as there was an 18 month wait for Android users after iOS users were already enjoying the application.

That said, this data was not included in the Arbitron research, which examined only the m-commerce app usage habits. It did not go on to investigate what might be the causes behind those behaviors by each type of device user.