Technology has brought a lot changes in business. Years ago there used to be a lot of business transactions that are now done within minutes through mobile phones. Manufacturers of phones have upgraded the operating systems and devices so that they can be compatible with the tasks users want to perform. Additionally, mobile application developers have improved the quality of applications that are used in mobile commerce and have created enhanced experiences for application users.
Growth of Mobile Commerce
If you compare mobile commerce and e-commerce, you will find out that there is a big difference in the rate of growth at which each one of them is growing. Mobile commerce is growing much more rapidly because it is available to everyone and affordable. It is also offers simplified experiences because the applications that are used to transact business in mobile commerce are easy to use. There are more advantages to mobile commerce, for instance it often will:
• Streamline the checkout process
• Improve search functionality
• Provide live inventory visibility
Use of mobile apps by companies to do business transactions make it easier for the clients to read the product descriptions, read customer reviews and even compare different products of the same kind. There are also some companies that offer additional coaching in courses that can help them make their customer experiences even better.
Use of Mobile Commerce
Many companies have currently embraced mobile commerce and they have seen tremendous growth and improvement in their businesses. The profits that they accrue have increased making their businesses more lucrative because of the customer traffic that is realized by the use of this platform. There are some companies that you can see reporting that they had an increase in profits up to 28% after adding mobile commerce. Any kind of business is compatible with this kind of mobile commerce because you just need an application that shares all your goods and services and their comprehensive descriptions and makes them available to customers.
Partnership with Major Selling Platforms
There are other businesses that rely on major selling sites like Amazon because they are recognized and they sell their goods from that platform to increase their profits. From the statistical data that has been kept by companies, they have recorded that almost two thirds of their customer traffic and a similar fraction of profits are from mobile commerce. Tablets and mobile phones have boosted the income of many companies and made them more profitable because they are easy to use. The affordability of cheap phones particularly cheap smart phones has catalyzed mobile commerce and made its rate of growth faster than that of e-commerce. While e-commerce is popular among major companies, mobile commerce is for everyone.
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With mobile’s meteoric rise over the past few years, many marketers are having trouble reaching and connecting with audiences in a meaningful way through traditional marketing avenues. In a recent report from Mobile Commerce Daily, they detail that consumers classified as “Millennials” are particularly available to communication via mobile marketing and are highly willing to engage with brands via mobile devices and mobile applications.
“Unless brands evolve, they run the risk of becoming less relevant to consumers who are using mobile devices,” Kimber Johnson, the Managing Director of Vanity Point, states. “Marketers who are not engaging consumers where their time and attention is are placing brands at a significant disadvantage.”
Data from NetBase and Edison Research shows that among Millennials it is important “to be the first to know about a new product.” Mobile gives marketers a medium featuring immediacy that other mediums can’t touch. An active mobile-first approach by retailers in their marketing could be a strong tool for reaching Millennials not only now and but also in the future as the Millennials age.
“Nearly one-quarter of Millennials say they are willing to pay a higher price to be the first to have a new product,” said Gretchen Hoffman, vice president of marketing at NetBase.
The latest study from Informa Telecoms & Media shows that retailers can no longer rely on just their in-store POS system for transactions. Retailers need to grow their systems to offer both traditional POS and mobile payment options to their customers. According to Informa, those that offer multiple payment options, including a mobile checkout option, will be able to serve more customers and reduce loss of sales due to shoppers’ desires to avoid standing in lines.
By using mobile POS options, including check out via mobile application, retailers can serve more customers during busy times and also issue paperless receipts to customers’ e-mail addresses. The evidence to the effectiveness of mobile checkout is growing rapidly. For instance, during the 2012 holiday season, Alex and Ani added mobile checkout in several of their US stores and saw an impressive 318% increase in sales just from transactions processed by associates utilizing mobile POS terminals.
Now is an exceptional time for retailers to update their systems. “Unlike a few years ago, many vendors are now offering mobile POS terminals and support services. These vendors are also offering attractive incentives to merchants and retailers to upgrade their old terminals with new mobile POS systems,” says Shailendra Pandey, a senior analyst at Informa Telecoms & Media and author of the report.
“With the growth of users’ expectations when it comes to service and usability, improving the check out process is a key way retailers meet their customers’ needs” states Kimber Johnson, Managing Director of Vanity Point Interactive Design. “We have entered an era where consumers are demanding more in physical locations based on the excellent experiences they are having on mobile applications or web sites.”