The Rise and Rise of mCommerce

Once again, the extraordinary importance and value of mCommerce has been well illustrated in the numbers alone. Right now, nearly 1.6 billion people are using mobile devices to shop online. Put another way, that is more than ¼ of the entire world population. Not only this, but as the immense popularity of mCommerce is continuously growing worldwide, the traditional eCommerce is experiencing something of a decline. Nothing too dramatic, but only a 15% increase in 2018, when compared to the year before. Meanwhile, during the same period, purchases originating from mobile devices doubled. Try quoting these figures to a business owner and it’s likely that they will be anything but surprised. The mCommerce revolution didn’t really come out of nowhere and it’s not a secret that the world we live in is highly addicted to mobile. But what’s interesting is the way so many business owners seem completely unsure as to how to engineer and adapt their content to succeed in the mCommerce era. Simple and Smooth - More often than not, the key to success with mCommerce is to offer the modern user a simple, smooth and seamless experience form beginning to end. Sure, easier said than done, but essential nonetheless. Simplicity and speed are the two most crucial attributes demanded by the modern user. For instance, approximately 65% of mCommerce users are not willing to wait more than four second for any given website to load. If the webpage is taking longer than this, they will head elsewhere. When they do, nearly 70% said that they would be more likely to complete a purchase if the mobile experience was on par. By the end of 2018, the total value of mCommerce in the UK alone hit an incredible £42 billion. What is more, mCommerce also accounted for nearly 45% of all online sales – the highest figure to date. So it is abundantly clear that mCommerce is not going anywhere but up for the foreseeable future. Therefore, now really is the time to start investing as heavily as possible in producing and offering an outstanding mobile experience, built according to the following key principles: • Creativity. No matter how you choose to go about it, your mobile site needs to stand out from the crowd and deliver a true and strong reflection of your brand. It should not be a watered-down, generic version of your desktop website. • Visuals. The large majority of mobile users expect high-quality visuals that make it easy and quick to see what is on offer and whether they want it. Creative imagery also has much greater impact that stock photography. • Adaptability. It’s no use to offer a mobile experience that is outstanding on the user’s iPad and pure garbage on their Samsung smartphone. Quality mobile web design means making sure your layout and content adapt to all devices, without exception. • Simplification. Ideally, the user should be able to easily find whatever they are looking for and complete the whole purchase process in a few touches. The more complicated and slow the conversion process, the less likely it’s to happen. • Speed. Lastly, being able to capitalise on the immense value of impulse purchases means providing a mobile experience that is lightning-fast at all times. When mobile website speed is not up to scratch, it’s largely game over.