In the past 18-24 months, mobile commerce has gone mainstream. Most people are now aware that mobile devices drive most e-commerce traffic – and with m-commerce representing over 50% of all US Christmas sales in 2017, every retailer knows they need to focus on mobile.
Unfortunately, there’s a massive knowledge gap in the marketplace. Mobile commerce is a new field, and because it’s so effective, there’s a lot of hype surrounding it. Sometimes, this hype makes it hard for businesses to know what the key, actionable facts are.
In this article, we’ll change that by giving you 4 critical mobile commerce facts you didn't know.
The first one is that…
1. Mobile commerce is already bigger than desktop
If you’re like most of our blog’s readers, you work from your computer. This means you spend a lot of time in front of a notebook or an office PC. This may give you the impression that desktop computers (including laptops) are how most people access the internet.
This is wrong. Mobile devices already drive over 50% of all traffic in the US, Japan and other developed countries. In the world as a whole, they drive over 62% of all e-commerce traffic. That may sound unbelievable to you – but it’s true, and here’s why.
Hundreds of millions of African and Asian consumers only have smartphone internet. As a result, Asian retailers – especially in South-East Asia and China – are wholly focused on m-commerce.
In the US and UK, the new generation of smartphone apps offers retail experiences that are just as good as desktop websites. Because of this, people are choosing to do more of their shopping with tablets, phones, or a mix of mobile and desktop actions.
For all these reasons, a rising number of global brands is finding that mobile drives most of their income – which is what we’ll cover in the next point.
2. It’s the primary source of digital revenue
Clothing retailer ASOS is already getting more than 50% of revenue from its app and mobile website. That’s staggering – and most brands are still far from this figure. However, most large brands, including Adidas and Nordstrom, get well over 50% of their online sales from mobile devices.
Why is this happening?
There are two answers. First of all, desktop computers are limiting. You have your phone with you 24/7. This creates an infinite number of touch points, letting you be everywhere your customers are.
The second answer is that large brands have a lot of variety. However, browsing in a physical store is physically limiting – and doing so from a desktop is inconvenient. Mobile devices fix this problem, removing the physical (and time) constraints that stop people from seeing more content.
Look at it this way. Mobile devices let you reach people no matter where they are.
Especially when…
3. Making a world-class app is darn easy
As recently as 3 years ago, making an outstanding mobile app was tough. DIY builders were unreliable and limiting. Unless you wanted to have a cookie-cutter design and feature set, you had to hire developers who charged you thousands of dollars.
Things have changed dramatically since then. Today, you can turn any store built on Prestashop, Lightspeed, Magento into a world-class app. All you need is JMango360: a DIY builder that takes your existing store content and turns it into an app. You can then customize the look and feel of the resulting app, all without any coding. Our favorite part? The apps made with JMango360 also link to the same backend as your e-commerce store, meaning you don’t have to manually process in-app orders, payments, product-mutations and stock levels. Cool, right?
Unfortunately, many people still don’t know just how easy it is to make a world-beating app using JMango.
This is a shame. Ideally, every retailer wants to get into m-commerce as soon as possible. First, because you get so many new retail opportunities you didn’t have before. Second, because this technology still has a lot of room for growth. The earlier you get started, the more time you have to grow your knowledge and get ahead of the competition.
For an example of what we mean, check out how brands like Adidas are using mobile devices to innovate, in our next point.
4. Mobile Isn’t Just for E-Commerce
Adidas uses its mobile app to personalize shopping experiences in physical stores.
Specifically, Adidas gives consumers a quiz and collects their store usage information. Then, it uses Salesforce to turn this data into actionable, high-converting in-store CTAs that guide users towards items they may want. It also uses the data to show users targeted blog posts, product pages and other on-site content in ways that help sell more.
This is one way to use mobile apps: to connect physical stores with digital information. It’s cutting-edge, it’s effective and in the future, it’s going to be something most retailers do. And it’s just one of many ways in which retailers will use mobile apps to go beyond e-commerce in the future.
For example – at some point in the future, we may see in-store ads that react to our mobile devices and the data stored on them, Minority-Report style. When this happens, brands that have experience with m-commerce will be richly rewarded by the market, which is just another reason to consider going mobile in 2018.
Now, let’s recap the 4 things most people don’t know about mobile retail:
It’s already bigger than desktop
It’s the primary source of digital revenue for some of the world’s biggest brands
Making a world-class app is easy
Mobile isn’t just for e-commerce
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