It’s already February and your New Year’s resolution to capitalize on the growth of mobile commerce is collecting dust. It’s time to get your objectives clear so your digital commerce channel doesn’t go another year missing out on the biggest opportunity to increase revenue for low level of effort (LOE).
You’ve likely seen the numbers, but let’s recap. This is the year mobile overtakes desktop in terms of organic and paid online traffic – 56% of Americans made an online purchase last month. The trend is even stronger amongst consumers with higher disposable incomes and those in international markets. In the US, half of affluent customers use a mobile device to research while in the store compared to 88% in China.
As 2015 gets underway, brands are making an effort to understand how their customers interact with them across all channels at once. They’re talking about “showrooming” versus “webrooming.” They’re executing omnichannel strategies while you’re just getting started with mobile. Clearly there’s no time to waste, so let’s get right to the top three initiatives you should start driving now to collect low-hanging mobile fruit fast.
Make sure your emails are optimized for smartphones
Everyone will tell you to make your mobile site responsive, and you should. But if you don’t have the resources to execute on this immediately, start by optimizing your emails for smartphones. Some of our clients see as much as 79% of their email opens occur on smartphones. Your customers are busy, and your opportunity to reach them is lost if they have trouble reading and interacting with your emails on their smartphone or can’t easily identify a call to action. This simple tip requires a surprisingly low LOE relative to the potential gains in online revenues – and for companies struggling to adopt a mobile strategy, it can deliver the biggest and quickest win.
Get them in fast, get them out even faster
As shoppers continue their migration to mobile, ease of use becomes increasingly important. A successful mobile interaction with your customer is one in which everything is obvious, easy, and fast. To get them into your database faster, implement social login.
Almost 80% of consumers prefer social login now, boosting conversions as much as 50%. Start by integrating Facebook and Google, but look closely at your customer’s behavior patterns and ask them what their favorite networks are. To get them out the door with your products and a smile, integrate mobile express checkout options like PayPal. Customers with access to these checkout services are more than twice as likely to complete their purchase, effectively removing one of the biggest barriers to online purchase with one simple initiative.
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Although mobile conversions are still proportionately low, it doesn’t mean these customers aren’t buying.
The role mobile plays in the overall sales cycle is a puzzle that’s stumped even the best digital marketers. As mobile use explodes and traffic on these devices skyrockets, the expected gains in mobile conversions haven’t materialized.
This is because, for most brands, mobile is executing a world-class assist. Your third mobile quick win is to make sure you’re running an analytics product that tracks behavior across devices. The funnel from interest to research to purchase hasn’t changed much, but how customers use their phones in this process is a surprisingly complex phenomenon.
The key to your future mobile strategy lies in the numbers. If you can look beyond your mobile conversion rate, you’ll see even the smallest investments in your mobile traffic acquisition strategy pay off handsomely.
John Tomich is CEO of OneStop Internet.