Mobile Devices vs. Desktop PCs - Current Online Market Trends
In his first article for eft Nicolas Fincher compares Mobile devices and Desktop PCs across a number of different criteria from usability to social shopping.
Immediate access to the world's information resources on-demand and the ability to easily get in touch with virtually anyone irrespective of the geographical location – these awesome opportunities have made modern mobile devices an integral part of our lives. Every single year they are being more and more used for online shopping as well. Today consumers highly appreciate the convenience of researching goods and comparing prices, looking through peer reviews and making online purchases wherever they are just on their smartphones or tablets.
Various field studies show that today a large percentage of consumers turn they shopping habits to mobile. This creates the necessity for online retailers to make fully optimized and functional mobile versions for their ecommerce websites. Make sure, many of your clients are tech savvy and stay always connected. They expect to have your online store available at their fingertips, so your primary concern now should be to provide them this opportunity.
24/7 Availability to On-The-Go-Market
As it was mentioned before, one of the greatest advantages of mobile commerce is doing purchases anytime and anywhere. And today's shoppers not just appreciate, but rather expect this opportunity to search for necessary products and services, visit different web stores and make purchases on-the-go just from their smartphones or tablets, without being tied down to desktop computers. The other benefit consumers especially like is spending time usefully while staying in traffic jams or during long trips.
In such a way, having a full-fledged mobile-optimized online store version, like the one created with Twigmo mobile commerce from CS-Cart for example, ensures your around-the-clock availability on the so-called 'on-the-go' market and allows you to reach out to a very larger international audience of prospects using mobile gadgets to save their valuable time.
Usability and Interactivity
Naturally, our user habits vary from device to device. What works well on a desktop computer may be hard to do or even impossible on a mobile. For example, while keyboard shortcuts of a desktop allow to be precise, mobile usage is typically specified by typos. Here you can dramatically simplify m-shopping experience for your visitors and even make it more engaging by using tap-to-call buttons, links featuring hover-over effect, geomarketing options, scannable QR codes and, of course, short terms.
Social Shopping
If compared to desktop shopping, mobile experience is more social. Consumers are very enthusiastic over sharing everything they like with their circles through various social networks. They also like looking up goods, discussing new trends, special offers, beneficial deals, discounts, etc. together on someone's iPhone or iPad while being out with friends. Think of integrating some of the latest social networking applications for mobile to let your customers enjoy unmatched pleasure of co-shopping.
Customized Search
One of eMarketer studies reports that over 50% of mobile users search for products and services on their smartphones and tablets. So, when your prospective clients are on the Web market, make sure they find exactly your store – both virtual and physical. Register your mobile store version in various popular local search directories, like Google Places, Facebook Places, YellowPages.com, Yahoo! Local, etc. and take your time to create an excellent exposure in relevant review and user rating websites, for example Yelp.com for a wide range of local businesses - from clothing shops and restaurants to spa salons and recreation centers, TripAdvisor.com for travel agencies, Autos.Yahoo.com for car dealers.
To sum up, establishing an optimal mobile presence can serve as a highly-efficient marketing channel allowing you to reach out a very broad audience of prospective clients using various mobile gadgets on a daily basis instead of traditional desktop computers.