Category: Mcommerce

While there are 1.6 million applications available for Android users, and a total of 1.5 million apps available on iOS, 46% of smartphone owners use as little as 1 to 5 apps weekly. According to the Pew Research Center Report from November 2015, 43% of users uninstall an app right after downloading it.

In this type of an extremely competitive current, building, marketing and launching an app has become an indisputable challenge for even large companies, not just smaller developers. From your idea to your QA, two basic but baffling steps are defining the success of your app. And here is what you need to know about them.

1. Building a Useful App

Don’t launch an app that you are not using yourself. The answer might be as simple as that. If you don’t have a product that you are using on a daily basis don’t expect from others to use it as often as you would want them to (on a daily basis preferably.) Being emotionally objective should be your priority, because you can easily get sidetracked by the look, feel and overall project that you’ve built yourself.

The trick is to always think about your product from the perspective of the end user. Although your app should be safe for use, reliable, scalable, it also needs an intuitive UI and a thorough research work behind it. Make sure to maintain your focus, target your model audience, and always rely on analytics when you’re in doubt. Feel free to get inspired by other developers and if you think that you can offer a better version of some product — go for it.

2. Marketing an App

Marketing an app is still an unfamiliar territory, and this is why a great majority of marketing “experts” advise developers to build a great app, and let the product sell itself. Making an app useful should obviously be your priority. On the other hand, if you were considering marketing an app via QR codes, know that a total of 2% of US residents scan those. The solution is simple: go social. Social media marketing has become one of the most effective strategies across different markets and industries. If you have a PPC strategy, make sure that you are targeting your audience. On the other hand, video marketing is always a good idea. Online videos add up to 50% of all mobile traffic. This is why the best idea is to connect to influencers and get them to review your app. If you are paying for this sort of promotion, evaluate the price in accordance to the views and number of subscribers that this person has.

Ideally, you already have a fan base of your own and you have a good relationship with your audience, so you can market the video by yourself. Or get a friend or a member of the family to record the first video of your app at work and post it. This relates only to indie developers, if you are working for an established company and you’re hiring friends and family that is nepotism in the workplace, of course.

Now for the final step, when launching your app you should already have a pre-defined pricing strategy. Unsurprisingly, free apps get the most traction, but you decide which strategy is the best answer for your business model.

The world is going mobile and there’s no doubt that this technology is one of the fastest adopted technologies worldwide. Reasons are being varying across the geographies for its adoption, the numbers increasing on daily basis left everyone astonished.

According to Ericsson Mobility Report published in November 2015, mobile subscriptions will reach around 9.1 billion in 2021. This is more than the current number of mobile subscribers. The reason being inactive mobile subscriptions, two or more subscriptions for single subscribers as devices have increased such as tablets and Smartphone.

An increase in mobile subscription is more of a widespread trend in all regions of the world. The developing regions are witnessing more mobile subscription growth as markets are still not saturated. As every region is experiencing growth in mobile subscription, there’s no reason left for global and local firms to leave out mobile as the important business domain.

The Top 5 Countries experiencing the highest growth in mobile subscription are — the Indian Sub-continent, China, USA, Myanmar and Nigeria. Because of high population in India and China and improved state of education, technology, income, living standards, they are topping the chart when it comes to mobile subscriptions.

As the internet penetration has reached to its peak, the Smartphone subscriptions are seeing a tremendous rise. Estimates show that there will be more than 3 billion rises in Smartphone subscriptions from 2015 to 2021.

Below is an infographic which throws more light on the current and future scenario of mobile phone subscriptions across different regions in the world.

Embed this Infographics

Copy and paste the code below into your site.

<a href=’https://www.mobicommerce.net/blog/the-state-of-mobile-subscriptions-and-subscribers-from-q3-2015-to-2021/’ title=”The State of Mobile Subscriptions and Subscribers from Q3 2015 to 2021″><img src=’https://www.mobicommerce.net/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/mobicommerce-mobile-subscription-2015-2021.jpg’ alt=’mobicommerce mobile subscriptions 2015-2021′ border=’0’/></a>

MobiCommerce has one more milestone to talk about as the product has now been extended to PrestaShop platform as well. A company has recently its latest version for MobiCommerce with super exciting features of widget system, personalization, store locators and many more.

The company has planned PrestaShop release worldwide and is now available to customers from today. After receiving good response from Magento Users, they are all set to market MobiCommerce to PrestaShop community with the same frequency.

MobiCommerce has been an excellent product to those who are looking for quick fix solution for taking their online businesses on mobile. They capitalize on their easy installation process with few clicks and building a full-fledged app for businesses.

Basically, the whole set of features of MobiCommerce will remain same for Magento and PrestaShop. The installation and get started process will be different based on two platforms. Since the UI of both these platforms differ, the team customized UI of MobiCommerce to make customers easily accustomed to the usage of MobiCommerce.

Rakesh Jain, Co-founder, MobiCommerce said, “We made plans to launch MobiCommerce on these two platforms at the time we launched a new version of our product. We wanted to check the response first with Magento and released it first. After getting good response in just one month, we thought of making move with PrestaShop platform and team did it quite well. I thank my team and clients for constant support and dedication.”

MobiCommerce is constantly upgrading its support and technical staff to cater to wide and growing number of clientele. The company has also expanded its sales staff to be able to answer all its clients in the stipulated amount of time.

There are also plans to extend the product to more such platforms like OpenCart, WooCommerce, NopCommerce and several other players but at a later stage of business.

Mobile Commerce is next emerging trend and making headlines every now and then for newspapers, magazines, technology blogs, writers and many other platforms. Online shoppers’ are salivating on mobile commerce because of easy access to brands via their mobile apps (Mobile Shops), push notifications, easy payment gateways and many other frills offered by mobile commerce.

Have you ever noticed many times you have excellent content, flawless design, faster load times, and all other aspects of mobile commerce in place and still users are not able to connect to your brand on mobile. The same shopper is able to connect well when he is shopping from some other brand on mobile.

The reason behind this is the shoppers’ emotions involved in the purchasing process via mobile commerce or offline shopping. Purchasing decisions are mostly triggered by moods and emotions of individuals rather than facts and figures.

With mobile commerce, customers’ expectations change a lot and they want rich-user experience one time and every time. If your mobile shop have everything what is needed to be successful in your business and that particular segment of shopping but users’ are not able to find their area of interest, the blame would shift to mobile shopping experience.

Their feelings again are governed by occasions (wedding, festivals, gifts or others), product (Luxury or normal product), brand (Elite or normal brand) and many other aspects.

Mobile shopping marketers thus need to understand these basic aspects of shoppers ‘emotions and process their online shopping experience. They can do it generally by —

• Feedback from customers
• Taking lessons from bad experience by Shoppers
• Personal touch on mobile shopping experience

How mobile shopping experience can be enhanced to comply with shoppers’ emotions?

Nobody wanted to miss the bus second time and if you have encountered the above situation once, you would not like to repeat the same.

• Give them a strong reason for mobile shopping

Study your target audience and give them a strong reason to come to your mobile shopping via app or website. Apart from the core product or offering, that emotional touch or connect should be established on mobile front also.

It can be in form of informative blogs, notifications, newsletters and other incentives to make them more customized and personalized for the audience. Right now with rich user interface and right technology all this is possible with Mobile apps during mobile shopping experience.

• Multi-Channel experience must be consistent

Mobile Experience is already creating the multi-channel user experience for users and audience around. This means at all channels and platforms brand must deliver the same experience to users. This helps in creating the trust for brand performance for a brand and helps in providing the seamless shopping experience to them.

• Key Elements of mobile shopping able to connect to mood of shoppers’

The key elements of mobile shopping must be able to connect to moods and emotions of shoppers’. The basic functionalities like design of app or website, content placement, load time, visual effects, call-to-actions, landing pages and other elements must be in place to strike the right chord for the audience.

Mobile Shopping is gaining huge popularity and thus can’t be ignored. Mobile apps and website need to be updated with current trends and above all, they should be, in sync with customer expectations. For more information on Mobile Apps or to get your Mobile App strategy right, visit www.mobicommerce.net.

Mobile might sound small but one should not underestimate the power of the conjoint terminology “Mobile Marketing”. As per a study from Deloitte, More than $500 billion in sales and nearly 20 percent of all in-store retail sales are now influenced by mobile content and in 2016, that number is expected to jump to more than 50 percent.

With the omnipresence of Smartphones today, Personnel Computers are gathering dust lying idle at home. It’s official now that in certain parts of the world, there are now more Google search queries on smartphones than on desktop computers.Retailers are losing on a great share of their potential revenue if they are ignoring the mobile front of their digital commerce. Responsive websites and mobile application are the big door entries to ocean of profit for their businesses.

In January 2015, cell phones and tablets produced 53% of an aggregate 157 million online visits to 50 retail destinations that to m-business innovation supplier Branding Brand tracks, an 18% expansion from January 2014, when cell phones and tablets created 45% of an aggregate 155 million online visits. Cell phones represented 41% of all activity. Looking at January 2014 ($355 million aggregate income) to January 2015 ($364 million aggregate income), the offer of income on cell phones took off from 8% to 12%.

Creating an effective online and mobile presence is critical for businesses to stay competitive and relevant to their customers. A huge opportunity is “up for grabs” to anyone with effective mobile marketing strategy. Many companies are yet to visualise at this moment. This will not only help to build a direct link with the customers but also to the competitor’s customers. Companies embracing mobile marketing now will surely be way ahead of their competitors. Consumers armed with their digital gadget are customising their shopping experiences and are having a deeper interaction with the stores and brands. Retailers must quickly adjust to this changing landscape and meet customers’ expectation. More the channels, more the market share. Mobile media can be used for a holistic marketing approach by retailers and attract more customers.

As the online and mobile shopping unfolds, retailers should focus on how they can better engage with the consumers via mobile marketing. Mobile being a personal device is an immense potential channel for marketers and advertiser. There is a growing connectivity with almost all important tasks being completed using smart phones. Even the third world has adopted it and is growing. Thus, more access which means more business. Accurate targeting of consumers and localisation are flavours of mobile marketing. In other words, mobile is truly being the medium for branding and direct marketing purposes. Thus, it’s time to rethink and protect ones business from suffering, if someone is treating Mobile as a secondary priority.

Brick and Mortar shopping has undergone a way beyond change to “Thumb Shopping”. MCommerce has outpaced the traditional shopping and acts as a consumer engagement tool driving sales. Mobile acts like an alternative storefront to the customers. At present, there are numerous reasons of opting for mCommerce.

Know it all World: Customers are delighted to gather more information with ease in today’s world. MCommerce is the new disruptive innovations which help users have multiple information on hand. Product information, promotions, offers, discount, social media sharing, reviews are all available using M-Commerce.

Immerse or Perish: MCommerce makes shopping more convenient to its customers. It is customizing your shop as per the device used by your customers. Around 30% of mobile shoppers abandon a transaction if the experience is not optimized for mobile.

personalize and Retarget: Every devise a customer uses is an opportunity for the retailer to influence his/her customer. It helps in luring the customers to purchase the item they viewed previously. The efficiency of targeting the customers will be higher thus driving growth.

Growth of Mobile Payment Gateways: With the increase of safe, secure and fast transaction and checkout methods in mobile it makes easier for the customers to complete their purchase using mobile.

With the rate of growth of m-commerce online retailers need to adapt their business and facilitate consumer convenience. Those failing to opt for it are sure to lose on the battle of their final click and customers’ altogether. The thrust of mCommerce is sure to outpace current shopping experience to new territories. Adopting this change earlier will be a proactive move rather than a reactive move and losing the battle.

We came across a recent study from CMO council regarding mobile commerce trend and the facts and figures shared. The mcommerce is expected to trend pretty well in the coming years. The number of smartphone users worldwide will surpass 2 billion in 2016, according to new figures from eMarketer. 33.7 million Shoppers prefer shopping over mobile application. In-app purchases will account for 64% of total smartphone app revenue in 2015. 61% of mobile shoppers fall in the age group of 18-35. 43% of shoppers use mobile phones directly from the phone. 46% of smartphone users have made a purchase through their mobile phone.

There are multiple things shoppers shop nowadays and here is what’s trending the most 19% of the total shoppers, shopped apparels, 17% food and beverage, 13% electronics, 11% home furnishing, 6% sports shopping, 5% jewelry, 12% other goods this gives a clear picture of what’s booming in the mobile shopping.

Figures say 78% of smartphone users access a retail site via a mobile app, while 32% of consumers used their smartphones to search better prices on consumer items, 63% of shoppers enjoy shopping over mobile apps, while 52% used their smartphones to search product reviews.

Some interesting facts are:

• Mobile commerce will account for 24.4% of overall ecommerce revenues by the end of 2017
• The majority of consumers are of the opinion that mobile-optimized sites run faster than non-mobile-optimized sites
• Flurry’s most recent study shows 86% of mobile usage is within apps.
• 64% of Small Businesses prefer having a fully functional mobile app for their online store shortly

If you are uncertain about the co-relation between mobile and business, it is high time you accept the fact that Mobile is no longer a future but it is the present. Our day today activities are getting mobile rather than stagnant the conventional way, however the wearable device is yet to take off the market,the statistics say it all. A leading Media states that ”The mobile industry will be valued for more than $1.6 trillion and the numbers are expected to rise up to multi-trillions in next 10 years” from now.

With the increase in mobile usage, there has been a vast change in the consumer’s shopping habit. With increase in the number of various payment options and the security protocols consumers find it a better preferred source to shop through mobile. Now this puts a lot of online businesses into pressure to create a prominent mobile presence. For any business to attract customers over the mobile app it becomes a need to deliver a user-friendly mobile app which is as easy as using the desktop site. Studies by tech experts say that “76 per cent of shoppers so mobile shopping while at home while whereas 31 per cent of mobile users shop while at work”.

• Around 67 per cent of mobile users have installed an ecommerce app on their smartphones
• 30 per cent of mobile app users have more than four applications installed in their smartphones

Ecommerce experts recommend not to compromise on mobile applications however put efforts in making them more user friendly to enhance user experience. A usual mobile shopper use mobile to search the store information, compare pricing, check for discount coupons and read the reviewsand rating of the product.

What is it that businesses need to do to enhance shopping experience?

Enhance Mobile experience:

Although your online store has the best of brands available and best of support you might provide but if the mobile app is not that user friendly all the other efforts are worthless. 43% of shoppers claim that they prefer purchasing on ecommerce sites that are available on as a desktop version as well as a mobile application.

Create a prominent social media presence:

While retailers struggle to achieve sales numbers through social media, studies reveal one third of the sale has been made by being influenced through social media or friends sharing their purchase over social media. Hence a prominent social media presence is required where you can promote your products; share discounts and offers whereas customers can give the rating and review of their overall purchasing experience with you. This real time active social media sharing helps a lot in boosting up the sales numbers.

Add Push notification:

Apart from providing the mobile experience it is good to send alerts when the sale is about to begin and this will boost up the sales.

Ensure Data Security:

No matter how user-friendly your app may be, if there are security issues then it will create a negative impact. Ensure your clients of the data security which will give them confidence of a safe financial transaction.

Multiple Payment Options:

Facilitate customers will multiple payment options for their convenience.

With increase in the number of people using mobile app days are not far when mCommerce will take over eCommerce for the only reason as it gives flexibility and mobility.