Tag: m-commerce

Alibaba unveils plans to support retail sector that may have implications for mobile commerce

Alibaba, China’s largest online retailer, has unveiled plans to revolutionize the country’s e-commerce sector. Commerce throughout China has been changing in recent years, driven by the growing number of people that are beginning to rely heavily on their mobile devices. The emergence of mobile commerce has encouraged many companies within China to take the mobile space more seriously, and Alibaba intends to utilize the momentum that mobile commerce has generated to make drastic changes to the e-commerce scene.

Company to invest $16 billion in support for the e-commerce sector

Alibaba intends to invest some $16 billion in logistics and support to the e-commerce field through 2020. The company believes that this investment will help open up China to hundreds of millions of new customers, which could eventually translate into higher revenues for online retailers throughout China. E-commerce is expected to account for a fifth of all retail sales in China within the next 5 years and many of these sales will come from those making purchases from mobile devices.

Mobile commerce is growing in China

Mobile commerce has been gaining momentum throughout China, but few retailers have yet to embrace the mobile space. Support from Alibaba may help retailers become more accommodating of mobile consumers, developing websites and other services that are optimized for mobile use. While Alibaba is not solely focused on mobile commerce, the support that it is bringing to the retail industry may help retailers engage mobile consumers more effectively.

Lack of security could slow growth of mobile commerce

There are risks when it comes to the expansion of mobile commerce. Identity theft and other types of fraud are becoming more common within the mobile space with every passing day. Without adequate security measures, the growth of mobile commerce is expected to be sluggish among consumers that are concerned for the safety of their financial information. Security concerns are also prevalent in the e-commerce sector, where consumers are leery of platforms they are not familiar with.

Following the latest smartphone friendly efforts by the retailer, it has made tremendous leaps forward.

Sears has announced that it is enjoying considerable rewards in mobile commerce after having made a number of improvements to its overall experience to help to make the user experience “faster, more personalized and require fewer steps to check out.”

This has allowed the company to see a notable rise in its conversion rates over this channel.

It is also a very important accomplishment for the retailer, as holiday shopping is coming up very soon and the importance of mobile commerce this season is expected to be more important than ever before, this year.

The retailer has experience considerable improvements in conversions, visits and even the average order value.

According to one of the Sears online marketing chiefs, Imran Jooma, “We have seen improvements in visits, conversions, average order value and especially our Shop Your Way member engagements.” Jooma went on to explain that many of the improvements are being attributed to the various mobile commerce experiences that the company has been rolling out over the last few months.

Jooma stated that these mobile commerce experiences “provide a fast, cleaner and easier-to-navigate mobile shopping experience.” He also added that these include better m-web experiences as well as those through apps for the Sears and Kmart Shop Your way feature.

The Gilt flash sales website has also reported that it has experienced similar improvements in its mobile commerce conversions which have been driven by exclusive content, device specific examples, and a larger degree of personalization. In Gilt’s own efforts in preparation for the holiday shopping season, it has revealed that it intends to give a boost to the tempo of its sales made exclusively over smartphones and tablets, in order to build a greater degree of hype for shoppers using this channel.

The most recent industry data has revealed that almost three out of every four shoppers that owns a smartphone device intends to use mobile commerce as a part of their holiday shopping experience. Primarily, they mean to use the devices to help them to research the gifts that they are seeking to purchase.