Mobile-first Commerce

“We are in the midst of a fundamental shift in consumer behavior and buying patterns. Today’s consumer expects instantaneous response times and the ability to shop anywhere, anytime with a single touch of a button.” – Nitin Mangtani, Founder/CEO of PredictSpring.

With Millenials forging ahead in owning and shopping on more and more devices than before, the mobile commerce climate has become infinitely more personable in recent times, aided with social media phenomena like Snapchat and Instagram.

WorldKitchen

By engaging its audience and consumers via seamless navigation on the editorial front, the streamlined mobile experience ensured that the manufacturer would see more than half their traffic coming from the mobile sphere, gleaning optimized sales opportunities.

Word-of-mouth is still king, as ascertained by today’s frenzied engagement on the mobile front. Couple that with establishments that are content-forward, and you’ll find that the ability to share experiences, bounce ideas off one another, and easy navigation on intuitive interfaces are formidable tenets to go on for commerce.

“Mobile phones are the first place millennials research and shop, and about half of our consumers come to World Kitchen from their phone. That is why we decided the new site would be a mobile-first design that makes exploring and searching easier, puts user-generated content and social sharing at the forefront, and gives you access to all of the World Kitchen brands from the palm of your hand.” – Andy Wang, a digital brand marketing manager, WorldKitchen.

Lazada

With more than US$136 billion items sold last year alone, Alibaba (world’s biggest retailer) found itself unloading a mammoth US$1 billion investment into Lazada earlier this year, considered Southeast Asia’s largest e-commerce company. While both businesses share enormous mobile footprints, they agreed on these factors that contributed to their success:

• Ubiquity
• Intuitive platform
• Loyalty (thanks to mobile ubiquity)
• Perpetual engagement i.e. push notifications
• Big data

Growth, as Lazada recognized, had to be based on special attention to mobile tracking, where its own multi-click attribution model delivered massive savings in retargeting and got rid of fraudulent clicks, which make up about a fifth of all traffic. It also recognized that app indexing has to be as important as web SEO, for the mobile commerce sphere.

Growth, as Lazada recognized, had to be based on special attention to mobile tracking, where its own multi-click attribution model delivered massive savings in retargeting, and got rid of fraudulent clicks, which make up about a fifth of all traffic. It also recognised that app indexing has to be as important as web SEO, for the mobile commerce sphere.

Shopify

“Messaging apps are enabling us to rekindle the conversations we are used to having in person with retail businesses, and recapture some of the lost intimacy that comes with shopping online. Our decision to integrate with Messenger and build commerce bots, is designed to help merchants develop deeper relationships with their customers, and give them an opportunity to reinforce their brand’s personality.” – Brandon Chu, Senior Product Manager, Shopify.

Engagement seems to be imperative for mobile traction, as it should be, where consumers are spending most of their time. The prevalence of social media giants like Facebook, also gives these merchants added leverage in running and growing their business.
The Journey, most mobile-first merchants recognise, is just as important as the end-game. The lull of mobile commerce starts with data, and notifying consumers when their preferences get to be catered to. Cross-channel efficiency is also a huge contributor to higher conversion rates, in that some consumers find it tiresome when their merchandise preferences aren’t seen on all their devices. Ultimately, persuasion is a lot more achievable on a minimalistic and intuitive platform like mobile.

Photo:techcrunch.com