The Future of Mobile Commerce
Mobile commerce, albeit not a fresh trend in the digital space, promises to stay and to keep making huge headway in the consumer market. This being said, we can no longer speak about m-commerce in terms of trends and fads. As mobile commerce developers and designers keep working hard in order to continuously improve and enhance the user experience, this particular type of wireless transaction has quickly become a must-have tool in the hands of end users worldwide.
What is Mobile Commerce?
M-commerce, the direct result of e-commerce advancing its technologies in the purpose of creating a safe and seamless experience for the consumer, allows for the buying and selling of goods and services without the use of a desktop computer. This highly convenient feature has helped e-commerce progress to the point at which we can now talk about mobile commerce as a separate entity, as opposite to always placing it in direct correlation with its forebear.
Functions Particular to M-commerce
Although mobile commerce presents an array of ramifications, all of these can be easily slotted into three main activities, as follows:
Mobile Shopping
Through the use of websites that are mobile-optimized, dedicated web apps and native apps, and even straight through social media, shoppers can make informed buying decisions from any type of mobile device, whether they’re physically in the shop, or not.
Mobile Banking
Provided usually through a secure and dedicated app, mobile banking has the same function as PC-supported online banking. With an increase in the addition of chatbots, mobile messenger apps, and digital wallets, mobile banking is becoming more and more the one method of choice for all the banking needs of the modern average consumer.
Mobile Payments
Facilitated by such technologies as P2P (peer-to-peer sharing) and NFC (Near Field Communication), digital wallets offer users the payment solution of one-click purchases. As this type of digital payment method continues to expand beyond mobile wallets and into activities along the lines of money transfers and POS (mobile point-of-sale), more and more beneficiaries prefer to conduct their everyday shopping by using one or another mobile payment option.
Desktop vs. Mobile
While the analytics of KPIs (key performance indicators) is essential in getting a clear overview of the industry revenue impact, there is no doubt in what concerns the advancement and benefits of mobile commerce, even though desktop-driven commerce is still far from being on the losing edge.
Year-over-year statistics performed on same-store European businesses show that mobile commerce is at an 18% growth.
At the same time, mobile AOV (Average Order Value) is 47% lower than desktop AOV.
Statistics also show that the average conversion rate indicated by the type of device used is around 4% on desktop, and 1.5% on mobile.
Nonetheless, we can also see that m-commerce sales account for 34% of e-commerce sales, with an expected increase of up to 54% by 2021 according to research by Mobile signal boosters.
Overall stats tend to diminish in significance when in a store, noticing that the majority of customers are using a mobile device to make their purchase. In the same way, a storeowner cannot argue the significant increase in conversion rates once an m-commerce platform is placed at the client’s disposal.
What is the Future of Mobile Commerce?
Many would say that the future of m-commerce is already here. And while this wouldn’t be a completely false statement, business owners and developers still have to pay close attention, do thorough research, and come up with dedicated solutions so that the entire community may take maximum advantage of all the perks m-commerce has to offer.
There is no argument at the moment that mobile commerce can and needs to stand improvement. The main areas of concern here are represented by mobile websites and apps that are not properly built as to support a fast, smooth and consistent user experience, as well as the payment option issue, meaning mobile payment is not universal, and thus constricted by geographical boundaries and lack of digital wallet variety.
However, what is of true significance in the ever-increasing and ever-changing m-commerce world is that as long as technologies such as chatbots and mobile messengers, progressive web apps, voice-automated searches and automated m-commerce keep moving forward efficiency-wise, the end user pool will certainly continue to grow, alongside the demand for quality service.
From how the situation looks at the moment, we can predict the following across the board improvements in what relates to m-commerce in 2019:
First, more one-click checkouts and more options when it comes to using your wallet of choice.
Secondly, easier navigation and browsing due to the fact that businesses are placing greater accent on developing mobile-first websites and apps.
Thirdly, many technologies that could heavily support mobile commerce are still new to this particular space, and have yet to reach their full potential. These technologies – AR headsets and voice activated searches, for example – are sure to develop nicely during the course of this year, offering users a truly complex experience.
Last but not least, as mobile commerce has become more and more popular over the last couple of years, and since we have now reached the point where a very big percentage of shoppers have grown up with a mobile device in their hands, a strong sense of general trust has been set in many online environments, m-commerce not being an exception.
This feeling of trust not only emerges in the way a user remains assured that all of their mobile transactions and personal data will be secured, but also in the way people interact and give feedback on m-commerce platforms.
As people started trusting mobile commerce technologies, and have not been disappointed, there is now also founded faith from the consumer’s part that providers will further the user experience.
As the consumer market has spoken, it is safe to say that we can trust in the future of mobile commerce.
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