Tag: mobile shopping

New report shows that small retailers are becoming more invested in the digital space

A growing number of small businesses are beginning to embrace mobile commerce in the United States. Throughout the years, small businesses have been relatively slow to embrace e-commerce on any kind, partly due to the costs involved in doing so. Over the past few years, however, many retail businesses have been finding more success by engaging consumers online, especially during the holiday season. A new report from Duda, a website-building group, small businesses are growing increasingly invested in the digital space.

Small businesses expect to see 25% of their holiday sales come from online shopping this year

The report found that many small businesses in the U.S. expect 25% of their holiday sales to come from online shopping this year. Approximately 14% expect to see more than half of their holiday revenue come from e-commerce. The report provides a new perspective on the e-commerce space. Many believe that consumers generally favor shopping on sites like Amazon and eBay when they are looking for products, but consumers have shown willingness to shop directly from sites built by retailers, especially when it comes to shopping from a mobile device.

Small businesses have been slow to embrace e-commerce

Small businesses have been able to get by without having a significant online presence for years, but that may no longer be the case. Consumers are becoming more reliant on technology and many want to make use of online services that make shopping more convenient for them. This has lead to a surge in mobile commerce, as consumers have begun gravitating toward mobile-centric services. Social media is playing a role in the growth of e-commerce as well and small businesses may be able to capitalize on that trend.

Social commerce could help small retailers engage consumers more effectively

So called social commerce is becoming quite popular among consumers. This concept is relatively simple, as it involves shopping for products online using social media sites like Facebook and Twitter. Small businesses may be able to engage consumers more effectively by adopting some of the principles of social commerce.

American consumers feel that smartphone based shopping has a greater draw than the in-store experience.

According to the results of recent research that was conducted by Dynatrace – an app performance management firm formerly known as Compuware APM – 37 percent of American smartphone and tablet users see mobile commerce as a more appealing experience than actually going to a store’s physical location in order to make a purchase.

The research also found that many Americans will be choosing m-commerce for their holiday shopping.

In fact, among tablet owners, 42 percent said that they will be doing more of their holiday shopping this year over mobile commerce channels than they did last year at the same time. This makes it look as though this year – which was one that saw a considerable number of milestones in the mobile technology category – has the potential to break some records when it comes to sales over smartphone and tablet optimized websites and retail apps.

Among the respondents 37 percent said that they would do more shopping over mobile commerce than in store.

They indicated that they will be using m-commerce over smartphones and tablets more often throughout the holiday shopping season than they would be going into physical store locations in order to buy what they want.

The research involved the participation of 1,353 people in the United States who own smartphones and/or tablets. It was conducted by Harris Poll on behalf of Dynatrace in October. It found that even among the consumers who will be going to physical store locations, 25 percent will be making purchases over their mobile devices while standing inside the shops.

According to the Dynatrace director of omnichannel strategy, Erwan Paccard, mobile commerce has “transformed holiday commerce—in fact, retailers are at a tipping point, as they must perform for mobile users or perish at the hands of competitors.” He added that consumers are bringing their smartphones, and even tablets, into stores with them on an increasing basis and are “becoming virtual shopping assistants. And when users encounter poor-performing mobile sites and apps, they buy from competitors and broadcast their frustrations.” He pointed out that retailers that fail to cater to those consumers over the holiday season “do so at their own peril.”