Mobile commerce: a mall in the palm of your hand

Thanks to the wide­spread use of smart­phones and tablets and generous mobile contracts, more and more people can access the internet whenever and wherever they choose. But users aren’t just using their phones to access mes­sen­gers and social media platforms; indeed, the current mobile boom is changing the world of e-commerce, making it an in­creas­ing­ly popular method of pur­chas­ing goods and services.

• According to PEW Research Center, 67% of US adults own a smart­phone.

• A study by 2016 Mobile 500 suggested that by August 2015, mobile commerce amounted to 30% of all US e-commerce for that calendar year.

• Research carried out by eMarketer shows that US consumers spent $74.93 billion on goods and services with their mobile devices in 2015.

These figures speak volumes: m-commerce offers web store managers a huge audience and the op­por­tu­ni­ty to make a greater profit. However, creating a mobile-friendly version of your website requires a lot of time and effort. Meeting the demands of the mobile user is an in­creas­ing­ly chal­leng­ing task, as they can close a poorly optimized site with a single swipe.

To see a mobile store as a ‘mini version’ of a web store is to disregard many important aspects of mobile commerce. A smaller screen size is not the only dif­fer­ence between mobile devices and laptops. There are other crucial dif­fer­ences to consider.

The most important aspects at a glance:

• mobile stores are operated by touch­screen tech­nol­o­gy
• users navigate with fingers, rather than the more precise mouse
• the display is much smaller, meaning the visible area is also reduced
• the loading times are often slower, as LTE 4G is not always available
• many devices ex­pe­ri­ence problems with Java and Flash

Although it’s easy to lump tablets and smart­phones together in the same category, it’s important to remember that user behavior varies depending on the device they are using. This is par­tic­u­lar­ly true for mobile e-commerce. For many people, tablets have replaced desktop computers as a means of browsing the internet. This gives retailers the op­por­tu­ni­ty to tap into user behavior and encourage them to make impulse purchases. Smart­phones, on the other hand, are generally used to look for specific products, and purchases are usually planned.

To get started, store owners need to decide which solution is the best fit for their project. There are generally three options: mobile websites, re­spon­sive websites, and a native app or web app.

Mobile website

Mobile websites were developed specif­i­cal­ly for m-commerce and so are specif­i­cal­ly adapted to the re­quire­ments of mobile devices. The processes and display are fully optimized. Typically, mobile websites do not com­plete­ly mirror their desktop coun­ter­parts, and some pages are even omitted so as not to impair the website’s per­for­mance. The mobile site should be con­sid­ered a separate and parallel branch of your web store. As a result, the mobile site requires a com­plete­ly separate template or a shop system in­stal­la­tion. The biggest advantage of a mobile website is that it focuses on usability for the customer.

Ad­van­tages of mobile websites:

• Mobile ad­ver­tis­ing op­por­tu­ni­ties
• Im­ple­men­ta­tion of technical features (HTML5 rather than Flash)
• Better per­for­mance
• In­de­pen­dence from the user’s operating system

Re­spon­sive web design

Re­spon­sive web design entails adjusting existing websites so that they adapt au­to­mat­i­cal­ly to any device. This kind of web design works with a dynamic structure and reacts re­spon­sive­ly on different mobile devices. If your web store is well set-up (for example, with a clean template), you can implement a re­spon­sive design without much effort. Unlike the app, this is in­de­pen­dent of the user’s operating system. This method has been crit­i­cized for long loading times and poor usability, but this depends on the quality of the im­ple­men­ta­tion. If you possess the technical know-how, re­spon­sive web design might be perfect for your needs.

Ad­van­tages of re­spon­sive web design:

• One version for every device saves time and money
• Recog­ni­tion thanks to similar pre­sen­ta­tion on desktop and smart­phones
• In­de­pen­dence from the user’s operating system

Mobile apps

The third technical solution is the de­vel­op­ment of an in­de­pen­dent app, which users can download from the app store. The de­vel­op­ment process here requires far more effort than mobile and re­spon­sive websites, so you should ask yourself if it really makes sense to create the app, and what ad­van­tages it offers over the other, easier options. Ideally, there should be some bonuses to using the app, such as an offline mode or push no­ti­fi­ca­tions. If your goal is simply to make your products available on mobile devices, a mobile or re­spon­sive website is perfectly adequate.

Ad­van­tages of mobile apps:

• Added value to customer ex­pe­ri­ence through special features
• Allows developer to integrate device functions (i.e. camera)
• Totally in­de­pen­dent from website

Ex­pe­ri­enced pro­gram­mers also have the option of creating a web ap­pli­ca­tion as well as the native app described above. This is used in a browser, but the structure and operation has the ap­pear­ance of a native app. Unlike the native app, the web app is in­de­pen­dent of the operating system used. The downside to this is that access to certain device functions can be re­strict­ed.

Mobile op­ti­miza­tion is a key factor in gaining a good ranking in search engine results pages (SERPs), so search engine op­ti­miza­tion (SEO) also plays a vital role in m-commerce. Since Google’s 2015 mobile update, having a website that isn’t optimized for mobile devices has a negative impact on your ranking in the SERPs. Even if a website is optimized, its ranking and traffic can still suffer if it doesn’t offer users an optimal ex­pe­ri­ence on their smart­phones or tablets. To avoid these losses, Google offers a service that enables you to test how well your website is optimized for mobile devices.

These days, having a mobile version of your online shop is an absolute must. Only by zeroing in on the needs of your mobile users can you really take advantage of the sales op­por­tu­ni­ties presented by mobile e-commerce. Remember, usability should always take center stage, so take time to consider which platform best suits your venture, be it a mobile website, a re­spon­sive website, or an app.