The Inevitable Growth of Mobile Commerce
Why Mobile Commerce?
Mobile commerce or Mcommerce is a word that we keep hearing more and more each day. And, understandably so! Thanks to the smartphone revolution, the growth of mobile market has been exponential since the early noughties. At the moment, there are about 4 billion wireless devices in use, and out of these over 1 billion are smartphones. Moreover, use of mobile Internet is projected to surpass the desktop Internet usage this year. Mobile Internet has perforated our lives to such an extend that nearly 85% of us browse our wireless devices even while watching TV. So what does the growth of mobile commerce mean for you if you are a business owner?
You don’t need us to tell you how Internet has revolutionised the commerce in 21st century. Now, with the increasing use of wireless devices (smartphones, tablets), more and more users are engaging in commercial activities while they are on the go. These include, buying and selling products, paying bills, online banking, or in other words, pretty much every financial transaction that we have been doing on our desktops (or laptops) up until now. According to a survey commissioned by Google in 2012, nearly 70% of users are more likely to buy from a website that is optimised for mobile devices. On the other hand, 96% of customers have said that they frequently come across sites that were not suitable for mobile use. So it is extremely imperative that business owners prioritise and optimise their mobile site as much as, if not more than their regular websites.
Responsive Web Design
One of the ways to achieve a mobile friendly website is through a Responsive Web Design. This type of interface incorporates a flexible design that intuitively adopts its size to the screen size and platform of the visiting wireless device. The above-mentioned Google survey also revealed that almost 50% of mobile users feel frustrated when they encounter a site that’s not mobile-friendly. Therefore, a responsive design is extremely critical for business owners who want to target potential customers on wireless devices. So as a reminder, business owners, big and small alike, should proactively tap the vast potential of mobile commerce. Whether to improve the overall user experience, or build customer relationship or increase revenues; the opportunities here are practically infinite!
