The power of mCommerce: How mobile commerce is changing the world

To guide you through the success of your shop, we would like to share with you true expert advice. Stephan Schambach is a serial entrepreneur with a proven track record of creating and growing successful tech companies in the United States and Europe. As mCommerce (mobile commerce) is increasingly popular among SMBs, our merchants welcomed his presentation with great enthusiasm at the Commerce Summit. In this article, you will find a summary of the main insights on mCommerce trends and the best practices to engage your customers on mobile devices.

What is mCommerce?

mCommerce involves shopping through a mobile device, typically a smartphone. Thanks to technological advances that are making it easier for people to shop on their phone, mCommerce bursts into the mainstream. Since standard retail with local stores experiences a crisis, mCommerce is becoming a major channel for online shopping and to change consumer habits. Studies state that mCommerce will own 50% of the total e-commerce market in 2020.

According to Stephan Schambach, mCommerce is a whole new point of sale and small brands have the opportunity to build it right from the ground up, as they haven’t overextended their physical footprint yet and they don’t need to face legacy systems.

As a consequence, retail needs a makeover. Today’s consumers are evolving: they have other expectations and they need rewarding experiences. As a merchant, you also need to future-proof your brand, and with the mobile experience, customers now truly have the brand in their hands.

Mobile trends that stood out from Stephan Schambach’s presentation:

• The mobile consumer wants a frictionless experience. We know that the mobile shopping experience can be a nightmare and that users can get a lot of frustration and abandon the process. Load speed and transaction speed are therefore essentials. Buying via an app typically requires consumers fill out 21 forms fields: try to reduce them as much as you can.
• Create new levels of services accessible anytime and anywhere. Keep in mind the 80/20 rule: 80% of revenue comes from 20% of customers. Rich mobile experiences are the tool of choice for boosting loyalty and engagement!

Ways customers engage

Now that you know a bit more about the new trends of the mobile commerce market, we would like to share with you 4 ways consumers engage in mCommerce. Along the customer journey, here are the standard behaviors that offer strategic opportunities.

• Inspiration. The most common way people use mobile devices is to look for deals. It can in fact be a good idea to adopt a business model to become “mobile first” to offer special deals to users. You can also use an emailing strategy to alert them about real-time deals.
• Purchasing. Being able to make a purchase is the obvious motivation behind the mobile commerce experience. If you are a brick-and-mortar retailer, it is then needed to integrate a mobile experience with your in-store offerings. This experience offers convenience for consumers who no longer have to wait.
• Research. Consumers use their device for product research, to compare prices and quality and keep up with the trends.
• Sharing. Most of all, the human experience has to be taken in account. Consumers use their mobile device to share their experiences with friends.

Building a successful mCommerce strategy: common mistakes to avoid

On mobile devices, any issue can become discouraging for the user. For example, when using forms, error messages are commonly used to remind the user than a field or code is not valid. If not displayed and explained clearly, these messages become confusing. Smooth navigation is so important on mobile devices that any successful mCommerce business focuses on giving clear and precise messages to the users.

In the same context, asking for too many fields to be filled out is also perceived as a barrier. Experts recommend reducing the number of required fields to allow a faster process. In the case of a subscription, for example, first and last name, email and password are more than enough.

You might as well want to facilitate impulse purchases: allow the user to purchase without creating an account.

Many thanks to Stephan Schambach for providing a rich and inspiring presentation during the Commerce Summit in Hamburg.

Did you know that the ePages shop software is mobile compatible? ePages Base already has a dedicated mobile storefront, but the next product generation ePages Now even has a responsive design that automatically adapts to any device the customer might use. 

About Stephan Schambach: Schambach is a serial entrepreneur with a proven track record of creating and growing successful tech companies in the United States and Europe. Under his leadership and vision, he brought Intershop and Demandware to IPOs with multi-billion dollar market caps. In 2016, Demandware was acquired by Salesforce and is now known as Salesforce Commerce Cloud. As Founder and CEO of NewStore, Stephan is setting out to change the market once again. This time by solving the omnichannel problem facing so many retailers and brands. He has won numerous awards around the world for his technology and entrepreneurial leadership, and he is the author of Makeover: How Mobile Flipped the Shopping Cart. He is also an investor in several software and green-tech startups.

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