When shopping online, consumers enjoy the convenience, fast processing times and easy delivery that ecommerce provides. Now, many individuals are bringing their mobile devices into the mix by browsing for and purchasing items through smartphones and tablets. For retailers, this means that mobile optimized websites and applications are requiring more focus and attention.

Internet Retailer reports that research from Arbitron Mobile revealed that customers are increasingly using merchants' mobile applications to buy products. The study found that more than half of American consumers who own a smartphone (55.9 percent) accessed a mobile commerce app in March. These shoppers spent an average of 91 minutes using the apps throughout the month. The source also discovered that mobile commerce is more popular overseas, as 66.8 percent of consumers in the United Kingdom utilized applications in March. Time spent on their smartphones and tablets came in at an average of 134.8 minutes,.

Although applications are growing in popularity, mobile websites are still as important as ever. For this reason, merchants need to determine which channel their patrons prefer and focus on optimizing those elements to the best of their ability. In addition, having an effective retail management software solution can help businesses successfully oversee both apps and websites for smartphones and tablets.

This entry was posted by Retail Pro on Monday, June 3rd, 2013 at 4:22 am .