Embracing mobile commerce: 6 ways to optimize

As previously published on TA Digital

It’s projected that by 2021, mobile will account for 54% of total ecommerce sales. In today’s digital era, wireless devices have made life easier for everyone. Mobile commerce has enhanced the shopping experience for consumers worldwide by making online transactions quick, convenient and smooth.

Why optimize for mobile commerce?

With many shoppers starting and ending their shopping journey on mobile, it is imperative that businesses optimize for mobile commerce. These days businesses primarily focus on simply augmenting ecommerce sites for mobile customers, rather than concentrating on creating advanced, interactive mobile pages that are easily utilized by the consumers.

6 ways to optimize mobile commerce:

1. Start with commerce trends rather than mobile design trends:

It is a common misconception that responsive web design is mobile optimization. Responsive web design in fact enhances the desktop experience on the mobile, but it doesn’t adhere to the requirements of the customers. There are certain limitations regarding ecommerce. The customer is the primary focus; hence, businesses need to synchronize needs with that of the consumer. After all customer satisfaction is the main priority, to increase sales.

To attract customers, the ecommerce site needs to be redesigned to offer the mobile-first customer experience; allowing for easier checkout on the mobile device.

2. Connect social marketing with social selling:

The present generation spends most of their time on their smartphones or tablets accessing social networking sites. Most of the consumers make purchases after coming across these sites, and they also promote them amongst their friends. Businesses should invest in advertising on these social networking sites to increase mobile traffic and the number of customers.

3. Anticipate omnichannel mobile shoppers:

According to a study by the Harvard Business Review, 7% of consumers were online-exclusive shoppers, 20% only purchased in brick-and-mortar, while 73% were true omnichannel customers, i.e. they used multiple channels while shopping. The omnichannel customer experience involves multiple touchpoints in various locations and combinations. Customers use apps to compare prices and download coupons. They also use to in-store digital tools like interactive catalogs, price checker or a tablet. They are also turning to mobile-enabled in- store checkouts and mobile wallets. In-store applications must now contain omnichannel strategies.

4. Mobile chatbots add leverage to abandoned carts:

The typical approach to reengage a customer who has abandoned their cart is to send emails at regular intervals to serve as reminders, along with special offers for the items in their checkout cart. Chatbots are the latest addition for reminders and a replacement for emails. Businesses that do not have the chatbot facility can send text messages instead of emails for communication on their smartphones.

5. Create mobile-only personalized experiences:

For ecommerce merchants mobile is both a boon and bane. Users have a short attention span. They are easily distracted by text messages or social media notifications while they are shopping. To grab the user’s attention and keep them hooked, businesses should create a personalized user experience that will help captivate the users and convert them into buyers. This can be achieved by optimizing page layout for traffic sources i.e. by helping the customer by showing various recommendations according to traffic source, showing relevant products and popular products. Businesses can also personalize free shipping offers based on a customer’s location.

6. Tune-up for fast mobile page speeds:

It is imperative to have fast loading speed for mobile sites as it helps in acquiring, retaining and attracting customers. The mobile design is similar to that of the desktop version. At times files in the background can also reduce the speed of the site on the mobile device and the customers end up paying for the load time.

By adhering to these strategies, optimizing each part of the mobile commerce application, businesses will be guaranteed to see a spike in conversion rates and ultimately generate a healthy revenue stream.

The post Embracing mobile commerce: 6 ways to optimize appeared first on Get Elastic Ecommerce Blog.

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