More than simply a device used to check Facebook and take selfies, mobile phones now account for more than 30 per cent of ecommerce transactions globally, according to a new report.
The State of Mobile Commerce Report from Criteo also revealed that smartphones are now making purchases, not just researching. Also, a third of fashion transactions now come from mobile phones and in the US, retailers generate almost 40 per cent of their commerce transactions from mobile phones.
“Consumers are more comfortable than ever making purchases from mobile devices, which makes it increasingly vital for advertisers to effectively reach them across devices,” said Wolf. “If you’re an eCommerce player and you’re not focusing on allowing mobile audiences to purchase from you, then you may not be in business in a couple of years.”
Dean Salakas owns a store called The Party People and launched the mobile version of his website six months ago. At first, he was sceptical (“Why should I go to the expense of a mobile-friendly website when it’s only 20 per cent of my traffic?”) but now, he’s found that mobile and tablet devices account for 50 per cent of the traffic on his site.
“Prior to setting up my mobile-friendly website, I have had improved conversion rates, better click-through on my ads. You might notice ads and search results for mobile-friendly sites say ‘mobile friendly’ on them, which makes your listing bigger and more likely to be clicked by the user on a mobile device,” he said.
Rhys Furner from Buccaneer Grooming said that it was “a no-brainer” for him to launch a response site across desktop and mobile.
“Every business is different and should consider the right strategy to reach their audience with a clear goal in mind. Some businesses may be better suited to an app, some a responsive site, some a dedicated mobile site,” he said.
“The beauty about today is that the technology is here. Platforms like Shopify and Woocommerce make it easy to get started with an ecommerce store and a lot of the templates you can buy are responsive. This saves you time as you only need to update the site once and things automatically adjust across desktop and mobile. It also saves you expensive web developer fees.”
Jo-Anne Hui
Former Editor of Giftrap Magazine