Tag: m-commerce holiday shopping

Mobile commerce reaches fever pitch during holiday season

The holiday season is settling in and mobile startups may stand to see major success this year as they engage mobile consumers in a new way. Keynote Systems, a developer of measurement products for mobile communications, has released a new study highlighting mobile startups. The study, called “Keynote Startup Shootout Index,” sheds some light on numerous startup retail organizations and how well they are accommodating the needs of mobile consumers. Given the growing importance of mobile commerce, ensuring that mobile users have a favorable experience through a retail platform is becoming a more important issue.

Retail startups putting focus on site performance

According to the study, retailer RueLaLa boasts of the best mobile performance than its competitors. The retailer offers fast load times for those accessing its website from smartphones and tablets. While the retailer’s website may not be ideal in terms of speed, as it receives an average of 38 new requests as the website loads, it does enable mobile consumers to access information on products more quickly than its competitors. This makes it relatively easier for consumers to purchase products online.

Loading times can greatly affect mobile commerce

Loading times have a significant impact on mobile commerce. The longer it takes to load a website, the less likely it is for a consumer to enjoy their shopping experience. Long loading times can lead to frustration that can derail any mobile commerce initiative. Loading times for mobile websites tends to become significantly problematic during the holiday season as the more people that access a website tend to put significant strain on the site’s servers. If consumers cannot access a retail site, they cannot actually purchase any products.

Success of mobile commerce provides encouragement to retail startups

Mobile commerce has inspired a new generation of retailers to enter into the field. Retail startups have placed a strong focus on the mobile sector. This is partly due to the success that many retailers saw during the 2011 and 2012 holiday season through their focus on mobile commerce. In order for retail startups to find this same degree of success, they must ensure that people can access their websites quickly and that these sites offer an enjoyable experience.

The true start to the purchasing season over smartphones and tablets is expected to kick off on the holiday itself.

Although the tradition was once to get together with family on Thanksgiving day and to shop for deals on Black Friday, things have changed with the addition of m-commerce and the internet as a growing number of people finish their meals and sign on to start their bargain hunting right away.

The new attitude is that there is no reason to wait when they have the shop sitting right there in their hand.

M-commerce is not only redefining the way that people behave over the Thanksgiving holiday, but it is also turning holiday shopping patterns on their head. Every year, new trends are being identified and monitored in order to help to better predict what will happen the year afterward. As mobile commerce is a relatively new channel that is taking off very quickly, many retailers are scrambling to know what to do and when to place the main target on consumers.

This year, m-commerce trends suggest that retailers that wait for Cyber Monday may have waited too long.

It isn’t that consumers won’t be signing on to the internet on Cyber Monday. In fact, the vast majority of online shoppers will likely focus on that day when they are sitting in front of their desktops and laptops – which represents most of the consumers that will be shopping online for deals. However, when it comes to the massively growing number of shoppers that will be buying their products and services over m-commerce, they may still be feeling stuffed from their turkey dinner when they use their smartphones and tablets to check out what’s available.

According to the principal analyst of digital index at Adobe, Tyler White, “The change happened when people had mobile devices in their hands. People want to be with their families, but if you’re bored with the football game, you start shopping. Mobile is driving the growth on Thanksgiving.” Though it is anticipated that retail revenue overall will likely remain flat this year, the sales that are occurring from Thanksgiving, Black Friday, and Cyber Monday are expected by Adobe to break records in its growth, particularly over m-commerce.