According to a new report by Forrester Research, mobile commerce is alive and well. This year, it will account for 29 percent of all online purchases in the U.S. (up from 21 percent in 2013). Forrester expects total mobile sales to reach $293 billion in 2018, at a compound annual growth rate of 26.6 percent.
Not only are the dollar amounts increasing, but the number of users is rising as well. Forrester says that while 38 percent of smartphone owners and 31 percent of tablet owners will use their devices to make purchases in 2014, they will increase to 55 percent and 61 percent respectively by 2018.
With mobile commerce booming, brands need to ensure they’re providing customers with engaging experiences on their smartphones and tablets. Here are three tips to help marketers succeed:
Consider how your brand is building, measuring and optimizing the mobile user experience. Mobile is unlike any other channel, requiring device-specific design and technology to deliver effective customer experiences.- Approach mobile technology infrastructure with scale and customer experience in mind. Verify that your vendor partners offer mobile-specific capabilities instead of forcing Web technology to work in the mobile environment.
- Make sure that the marketing partners you select are capable of powering your success both in the near term and long term. Choose vendors that have effective coverage of a diverse and fragmented mobile ecosystem.
A recent study conducted by Forrester and Shop.org found that 53 percent of online retailers consider mobile to be a top priority for their business in 2014. This is in line with Signal’s own findings – with increasing frequency, clients are asking for our help with mobile environments first and channels such as the Web second.
This is precisely why Signal is developing mobile-specific solutions – to properly support marketers’ broad spectrum of mobile needs. Thanks to Signal’s tag management system, Server-Direct integrations and full software-development kits (SDKs) for Android and iOS operating systems, marketers have a future-proof solution for collecting customer data from both mobile apps and websites – without using tags or browsers – all while preserving the user experience.
Originally published May 22, 2014