Mobile commerce: a mall in the palm of your hand

Now more than ever mobile devices such as smart­phones and tablets play an in­dis­pens­able role in our daily lives. The newfound pre­val­ence of this tech­no­logy has spawned a new area of e-commerce, known as mobile commerce, or m-commerce for short. For online shop operators seeking to profit from this fast-de­vel­op­ing sector, op­tim­ising your site for mobile devices is paramount, as user-friend­li­ness is a crucial factor in the success of an online store. The main chal­lenges here are keeping in mind how user behaviour differs depending on the device used, and catering to each device’s specific features as well as the customers’ needs.

Mobile commerce in the US

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 Deloitte research published by the BBC in September 2016, over 80% of UK adults now own a smart­phone.

• The BBC also mention that one in ten smart­phone users reach for their phone the moment they wake up.

• Meanwhile, Stat­ist­ica claims that the number of smart­phone users in the UK has grown gradually each year, with an estimated 46.4 million users by 2018.

These figures speak volumes: m-commerce offers ecommerce 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 optimised site with a single swipe.

Website to go: what you need

To see a mobile store as a ‘mini version’ of the main online 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 4G LTE 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 behaviour 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 behaviour 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.

Mobile commerce platform – different solutions

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 optimised. 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 online shop. 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 shop 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 cri­ti­cised 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 commerce in the context of SEO

Mobile op­tim­isa­tion is a key factor in gaining a good ranking in search engine results pages (SERPs), so search engine op­tim­isa­tion (SEO) also plays a vital role in m-commerce. Since Google’s 2015 mobile update, having a website that isn’t optimised for mobile devices has a negative impact on your ranking in the SERPs. Even if a website is optimised, 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 optimised for mobile devices.

Usability is everything

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 centre stage, so take time to consider which platform best suits your venture, be it a mobile website, a re­spons­ive website, or an app.