Why m-commerce is so important

M-commerce - the evolution of e-commerce

Booking your next vacation, buying movie tickets or ordering dinner on the go - smartphones have become an integral part of our everyday lives. Retail has also changed noticeably over the last few decades as a result. As a retailer, you know best: nowadays, almost nobody can afford not to offer products and services online. The spread and use of mobile devices is continuously increasing, so that they now dominate over the use of stationary computers. As a result, the next generation of online commerce has emerged in recent years: mobile commerce, or m-commerce for short.

What is mobile commerce?

The internet became established in more and more private households, particularly in the 1990s. Demand for products and services that can be purchased online also increased. This gave rise to e-commerce, which has long since become the largest source of retail sales.

A new trend has emerged in recent years, which in turn places new demands on online retailers. While in the early years of the internet, access to the vastness of the online world was only possible via home computers with large monitors, people of all ages now prefer to use mobile devices for messaging, messaging and shopping trips. Smartphones and the like are becoming increasingly versatile and powerful. And the advantages of these all-rounders are literally in the palm of your hand. Mobile devices make it possible to access online services conveniently and without delay from any location.

If one wanted to formulate a definition for m-commerce, one could state quite succinctly:

For online retailers, this naturally comes with special challenges in terms of UX, marketing and lead generation:

Mobile devices place their own demands on the content that is to be displayed on them. The small displays and touch controls require dedicated user interfaces. In addition, the compact frames of mobile devices are increasingly intertwining areas of life that were previously rather separate - such as commerce, social media, information, organization and entertainment. As a retailer, you must of course take these intertwined circumstances into account if you want to be noticed by your target group.

Why is m-commerce so important for e-commerce?

Mobile devices have become practically indispensable, especially in the private sphere. While most people only access the internet on their computers for professional reasons, younger generations in particular use smartphones and tablets for shopping, chatting and surfing in their free time. They are almost permanently present on social media and are in constant contact with friends.

This has also significantly changed general consumer behavior. And last but not least, the sudden social changes brought about by the coronavirus pandemic in 2020 gave a further boost to online retail on mobile devices.

This is a trend that you cannot ignore as an online retailer. M-commerce sales are also expected to increase in the coming years. M-commerce also offers new opportunities for online retail:

• Mobile applications open up direct sales channels to various target groups. Younger generations in particular can be addressed very precisely.
• Thanks to mobile devices and notification functions, you can respond quickly to inquiries and feedback. This allows you to stay in constant contact with your target group and build trust in the long term.
• If you even have your own mobile app on mobile devices, you can become a constant in your customers' everyday lives. This gives you an invaluable competitive advantage.

What is the difference between e-commerce and m-commerce?

In principle, m-commerce is a sub-category of e-commerce. While e-commerce generally refers to the trade of goods and services via the Internet, m-commerce refers exclusively to trade conducted via mobile devices.

For you as an online retailer, it is important that sustainably successful mobile commerce makes higher demands, but also offers unique new opportunities.

What are the prerequisites for successful m-commerce?

While in most cases "only" a website with a fairly standardized user interface needs to be designed for classic e-commerce via PCs, m-commerce has more specific requirements in order to ensure a well-rounded user experience across all devices.

This is primarily due to the characteristics of mobile devices: The choice of smartphones and tablets is huge. When designing m-commerce offerings, web developers must therefore ensure a pleasant presentation and user guidance on many different screen sizes. Operation must be intuitive, convenient and accessible on devices of different sizes and screen resolutions.

To run a successful m-commerce business, you also need to consider a few other basic aspects.

• You should simplify ordering processes. Extensive, convoluted order forms would be far too confusing on mobile devices. Instead, you can set up a streamlined, multi-stage ordering process with a progress bar so that your customers always have an overview and remain in the seamless flow of their customer journey.
• Offer various modern payment systems. Payment service providers such as PayPal, Klarna Sofort and Apple Pay are widespread and popular, which is why you should integrate them into your offering. They also allow one-click orders, which speed up online purchases and make them particularly convenient.

• Mobile users must be able to find your offer from their device. Therefore, place ads tailored to mobile devices in search engines, especially Google.
• In a constantly changing online environment, it is particularly important to establish and maintain direct contact with your different target groups. Developing your own mobile app initially means a large investment, but depending on your business model and target group, it can pay off because users don't have to take any "detours" via the World Wide Web, but can dive directly into your offering with a click.

Conclusion

M-commerce will continue to dominate online retail, not only in the B2C sector but also in B2B. Positioning yourself on the market with an appealing mobile commerce offering is therefore by no means an optional extra for your business, but a basic requirement for your success.

Therefore, always put yourself in your target group's shoes and think about how you can make access to your offer from mobile devices as beneficial and motivating as possible. Also analyze how your competitors are positioned in m-commerce and which mobile channels are used to generate leads. If you create the foundations for your m-commerce in this way and combine them with your unique selling point, you will be ideally positioned to survive on the mobile market in the long term.