Time has changed, technology has improved and people are getting modernized progressively. They are becoming neoteric as they have not only adopted modernistic lifestyle but have also welcomed new shopping options with open hearts. With the smart shopping ways, they have also changed them into smart buyers. They have shifted from ecommerce websites to mobile commerce sites and apps for buying different stuff. This is the era of M-commerce, where your favorite shopping stores and brands have reached to your mobile devices and give you that leisure to shop on your mobile device.
M-commerce is the next generation e-commerce that allows users to shop without needing to plug-in their devices. We all know that the ecommerce is increasing at a faster pace, but mobile commerce is growing at much faster rate. Being a business person, you don’t need to ask whether mobile marketing is important for your business or not as time has come when you need to understand that it is a vital part of any business. Yes, it is!!! M-ecommerce is growing 200% faster than eCommerce and this growth rate may get double in 2017.
M-commerce ensures to provide costumers business shopping experience befitting to the smaller screen sizes of tablets and smartphones. There are many businesses that still don’t have mobile-friendly websites or business apps. The most important reason why you need to care about mobile-friendliness or mobile commerce is that more and more people are now using smartphones and tablets. They access the internet through these devices and statistics also say that the usage of mobile devices has increased so much. Research says that 30% of mobile users are Smartphone users. According to eMarketer, more than 2.23 billion people across the globe use a mobile phone to access the internet.
Currently, global mobile commerce is 34%, which is expected to increase 50-60% in 2017 that is more than double as compared to entire eCommerce. With these figures, it can be predicted that soon all business will go mobile. Let’s understand how???
mCommerce Vs eCommerce Growth
With outstanding user-experience and great views, the interest of the users towards mobile shopping has increased a lot. They can now perform shopping on their mobile device at anytime and at anywhere. No more hassles of the plug-in. Retail sales via smartphones have greatly increased, and it is expected that mobile commerce will grow at the rate of 31% in 2017 while eCommerce is expected to grow at the rate of 15% in 2017.
Demographic of mCommerce Growth
As always forgotten, country-wise data of Mcommerce marketing growth, it has been found that 2015 Mcommerce growth rate was 50% in Japan, 45% in the UK, 44% in South Korea, 35% in Australia and 34% in Netherlands. This is the statistics of all developed countries. On the other hand, Mcommerce market is quickly growing in several developing countries. The top 3 countries that are serving as emerging Mcommerce markets comprise of India where the growth rate was 30.3% in 2012 and it reached 62.9% in 2014. Taiwan holds the next position where the Mcommerce growth was 28.2% in 2012, which increased to 62.6% in 2014. Malaysia is the third country in the list which had shown a significant growth rate from 25.4% in 2012 to 45.6% in 2014 in Mcommerce.
Top 10 mCommerce Merchants
Mobile devices dominate the time spent by the consumers with mobile sites and apps. There are many businesses that have a very strong gut reaction for mobile marketing and therefore they created their business mobile sites and app. There are many such mobile commerce pioneers who have witnessed remarkable growth and success through their mobile sites and apps. But still many chumps have not made their business reach to the mobile devices of their customers. They need to understand the significance of mobile marketing and how it can prove fruitful to their businesses. Given below is the list of top 10 fastest growing Mcommerce merchants who have witnessed an excellent sales growth in 2015. The statistics given below is based on Internet Retailer 2016 Mobile 500.
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GOME Electrical Appliances 643%
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Nebraska Furniture Mart 500%
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Yihaodian 456%
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VIPShop Holdings 451%
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HappiGo 389%
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Suning Appliance 363%
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Vancl 275%
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Dangdang 274%
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Jumei 239%
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Xiaomi 233%
People from different parts of the world are actively using mobile sites and mobile apps for shopping and buying stuff online. This craze among people for mobile marketing is increasing day by day as they find the complete store at their mobile. Just pick the favorite product, click buy and make payment. And it’s done!!! China, UAE, and Turkey are the top 3 countries in the world with the highest number of mobile shoppers, i.e. 68%, 57% and 53% respectively.
Impact of Gender on Mobile Marketing
Mcommerce data differs for both men and women. Where women spend more on apparel & accessories, health & beauty, groceries and pet supplies; men, on the other hand, use mobile marketing for shopping computer & electronics, sporting goods, automotive equipment and games. This segregation is completely based on the preferences and liking. This data can help businesses to create gender specific strategic planning to promote their products. Apart from the sexual category, there is one more categorization that can help business persons to plan their marketing ideas, i.e. mobile platforms. The study has depicted that average order value from Android device is $78 while it is $100 from Apple iOS. In fact, SMS marketing, rather than applications, can be far more effective for businesses looking to target university students, housewives, or even institutions. In the case of SMS usage in schools and institutions, for example, one can quickly construct a message and send it to the recipients, making it available at the tip of a teacher’s, parent’s, or pupil’s finger within seconds of being sent. Confidential messages or discussions between parents and teachers are not restricted. Students can even talk about their experiences on campus, such as the courses they’ve taken, events they’ve attended, and teachers they’ve met. This aids the institution’s growth and development. To learn more about SMS marketing and how you can incorporate it into your communication activity you can read the blog posts about same.
Coupon Statistics
Coupons are the driving force in Mcommerce as coupons connect people to brands. Young and old, poor or millennial, coupons are popular among all. Coupon statistics says that most of the digital coupons redeemed by smartphone users. It was 16 billion in 2014 and it is expected that the number of digital coupons redeemed worldwide in 2019 will increase to 31 billion.
There are many retailers that have the highest share of shopper visiting their website only on mobile devices. These brands include Apple and TicketMaster with both 59% share, Target and QVC with 53% share and last but not the least Kohl’s with 48% share. Globally 64% of users shop through mobile apps while only 52% of the individuals prefer web browser for shopping on ecommerce sites. Among different countries across the globe, China has the maximum percentage of individuals shopping through apps, i.e. 84% followed by Mexico 73% and the USA 72%. These are the top 3 countries where shopping through an app is more popular as compared to web browser.
Why Users Prefer mCommerce?
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Affordability of Mobile Devices: Tablets and cell phones are more affordable as compared to laptops and desktops. An average earning individual can easily afford to buy mobile devices, but cannot afford high-end devices. Moreover, one can easily do shopping from their smartphones no matter how costly or cheap it is. There are millions of internet users on smartphones all over the world, which forms a strong consumer base for Mcommerce.
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Shopping at Anytime & Anywhere: With mobile devices, you can shop at anytime and anywhere. You don’t need plug-ins or wires to connect your device.
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24/7 Mobile Internet Connectivity: With Mcommerce sites or apps, you can shop 24/7. Moreover, customers are not bounded by limited WiFi and wired connections as with 3G/4G data connections, you can freely access the internet and shop anything at anytime.
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Easy Mobile Payment Options: No more cheques and credit card payments when you have mobile payment options available. Now, a customer can pay through their mobile devices for buying a product. Mobile payments could be done through the app, IVR, data connection and even SMS. This will greatly reduce cash-dependencies of people, mainly in rural areas.
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Security: Payments through a mobile phone are secure and completely protected. Even if there is any case of fraudulent, credit can be easily tracked through GSM/GPRS/GPS. As all logins are performed through your personal mobile devices, there is hardly any chance of misuse.
Among different mobile payment options, top 10 payment wallets comprise of:
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Google Wallet
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Stripe
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Dwolla
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PayPal
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M-Pesa
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Apple Pay
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Square Cash
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Venmo
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Lifelock Wallet
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Samsung Pay
Among all these mobile payment apps, Apple Pay has been greatly in use (preferences in North America) followed by PayPal and Google Wallet.
Conclusion – It would be wrong to mention that “traditional Ecommerce” performed on laptops and desktops is not completely dead. The interest of people has just shifted to Mcommerce due to the ease they get during mobile shopping. The idea of this article is just to explain why you cannot afford to overlook mobile marketing and how it can help your business to reach more and more people. In the coming years, those who already have mobile-friendly website options, they will get on the success and enjoy the wave!!!