mCommerce – Apple and Blackberry Will Never Just Be Fruits Again

A friend of mine recently said, “Things were much easier when Apple and Blackberry were just fruits”. I am inclined to agree, what have we become? It seems like you can’t have a 2 minute conversation without someone sliding that infamous unlock button on their iPhone or BB messaging someone from their Blackberry. The entire world is at it, and like it or not, mCommerce is something you need to look into if you are selling online.

Most people assume that because internet access is so readily available on phones these days that they have the mCommerce side of things organically sown up. This is not the case. As any web marketing firm will tell you, mobile users have specific preferred requirements for shopping online.

As a fine example of how to do things properly let’s take Amazon as a case study. The Amazon mobile shopping experience is completely different to that of its standard store in that everything is simplified, streamlined and executed without the need for continuous horizontal scrolling.

Touch screen phones do crash if touching and scrolling becomes excessive. This alone is enough to put a consumer off making a purchase. The thought of phone freeze after 10 minutes of painstaking fiddling is too much to deal with for the average mobile user.

In the last 12 months Amazon went past the $1bn mark on eCommerce sales and after a brief viewing of their mobile platform it is clear to see why. The experience is personalised in the same way the standard service is but optimised for a smaller screen. Members are welcomed back, guests can still browse as usual and categories are displayed neatly. Web marketing firm BizReport, recently conducted a study and found that 65% of mobile users want to see more personalised ads and more personalisation in general.

If you haven’t done so already, then it’s time to get your store adapted for the mobile market. Choose your graphics carefully by promoting specific brands on a page rather than stuffing the screen with multiple banners and adverts. Personalise adverts in line with user history. Cut pages down in size and streamline the process from login to checkout. Keep members signed in so that they can re-access shopping carts and history, and be sure to make suggestions for new purchases.