Is Your Mobile Site Optimized?
By next year, half of the world’s 4 billion cell phones will be smartphones — and the total number of cell phones will be larger than the world’s population, according to The Ohio State University’s National Center for the Middle Market. More that 173 million people in the United states alone owned smartphones (71.6 percent mobile market penetration) during the three months ending in June, up 4 percent since March, according to Comscore. Adoption has been rapid.
That smartphone in your customer’s hand is the mainframe computer of yesteryear. As physicist and author Michio Kaku noted in a recent book, “Today, your cell phone has more computer power than all of NASA back in 1969, when it placed two astronauts on the moon.” For example, the iPhone 5’s 1GB of RAM is up to the task of storing the 6 megabytes of code that NASA developed in 1969 to monitor the status of its spacecrafts and astronauts. All that technology is now harnessed in a device that shoppers use to compare prices, locate products and even pay for purchases.
Retailers are under more pressure than ever to develop sites that are easy to navigate, attractive and fast. Shoppers want mobile-friendly sites and have grown impatient waiting for non-optimized pages to load. A recent study from Modify found that 30 percent will abandon a purchase if their mobile experience isn’t optimized. Modify also said:
- 51% of shoppers research online and visit store to purchase
- 17% visit store first, then purchase online
- 44% research online, and purchase online
- 32% research online, visit store to try, then purchase online.
Basically, stores need to have an attractive, streamlined mobile site as well as an in-store experience that delights the customer. And often, that experience starts with the smartphone as the entry point.
Mobile users spend more than other consumers, too. Considering that mobile shopping is expected to account for $163 billion worldwide, retailers must optimize their sites for mobile users and welcome the device into their stores by integrating it into the buying experience. Consider developing a retail app for your business; more than 60% of smartphone users download apps, and of those, 75% are free. In addition, 61% of smartphones are GPS enabled, so consider how beacon technology could help drive sales.
More than a third of smartphone users “check-in” and share their locations when they are shopping. Many of those prefer to receive coupons on their phones, and they welcome coupon apps. Those are likely candidates to embrace loyalty technology, which companies such as AppCard can help you manage.
The Ohio State research also found that $163 billion in products will be paid through via some type of mobile wallet by next year. And by 2019, half of those using the devices today will be using smartphone mobile wallets as their preferred method of payment.
Retailers should look at 2015 as a time to optimize their mobile web sites and implement technology to accept of mobile wallets at the point of sale. As mobility moves into the in-store experience, it’s clear that the omnichannel is taking root.
