Half of all smartphone shoppers in the U.K. are disappointed with the overall experience.
When it comes to mobile marketing and the smartphone commerce experience that is currently being offered, companies are finding themselves in a jam, as consumers appear to expect the usability of websites to be the equivalent of what they know from the standard web.
Unfortunately, these are two different technologies and the capabilities of smartphones aren’t there yet.
As businesses tinker with their mobile optimized websites, they are often either limiting them by too much of an extreme, or are weighing down each page too heavily with various objects, making it impossible to use for consumers who simply aren’t willing to wait the length of time that it takes to load. According to Eptica, a multi-channel consumer engagement firm, this is making mobile marketing and experience creation an extremely challenging process.
Companies are failing to meet the expectations of consumers in their mobile marketing and commerce.
More than ever before, consumers are receiving mobile marketing and are shopping over their smartphones but the latest survey from Eptica is showing that the majority of them don’t like the experience that they’re receiving. Feedback was received from 1,000 adults in the United Kingdom by way of this research, and what it determined was that 52 percent of those individuals felt that more than half of the websites that they visited using a smartphone or tablet had not been properly optimized for their preferred device.
The mobile marketing data was released in the 2013Mobile Customer Experience Study from Eptica. It also looked into the foundation issues that related to the unpleasant experience that consumers have said that they are having. The primary struggle was related to a lack of functionality both on the mobile web, as well as within apps that were designed for their devices (36 percent). Nearly as many people (34 percent) said that they were frustrated with the long loading times. Another 34 percent said that they disliked the websites that were not optimized to be viewed on the smaller screen of the smartphone or tablet gadgets.
Mobile commerce vendor raises $9.5 million in funding
Branding Brand, a leading mobile commerce vendor, has announced that it has raised over $9 million in Series B funding. The company has made a major impact in the mobile commerce space, enabling large brands, such as Costco, Sephora, and Redken to facilitate mobile payments. Branding Brand is responsible for the e-commerce and mobile commerce platforms of more than 200 of the world’s top retailers, a major accomplishment considering the competition that exists in the mobile commerce space.
Funding to help company expand and improve services
Backed by new funding, Branding Brand is expected to expand its mobile commerce services as well as introduce improvements to its already existing platform. The company is likely to continue its focus on the mobile space, helping retailers make their existing web presence more mobile friendly. Branding Brand utilizes proprietary technology to make conventional sites more accommodating to mobile devices, improving the shopping experience that smartphone and tablet users have on these sites, thereby promoting mobile commerce.
Branding Brand helps retailers engage consumers more dynamically
Branding Brand does not only make websites more mobile friendly, of course. The company also helps develop engagement initiatives for retailers. For Sephora, for instance, Branding Brand introduced a feature into the company’s website that allowed Facebook users to easily invite their contacts to registry lists. Other retailers have made use of the services that Branding Brand offers. Branding Brand currently sees more than $1 billion in transactions coming through its mobile commerce platform, an increase from the $60 million in transactions it had recorded in 2011.
Mobile commerce continues to grow in popularity among businesses
Like other companies in the mobile commerce sector, Branding Brand has benefitted from the growing popularity of mobile technology. Today, consumers are more integrated into their smartphones and tablets than they have ever been in the past. This has led to the emergence of new forms of commerce and new shopping trends. Retailers around the world have been feeling the pressure to engage these consumers on platforms they have become very comfortable with, hence the increased interest in mobile commerce among businesses.
