Mobile sales have officially gone mainstream. According to Adobe, a digital firm that tracks online sales, the Cyber Monday turnout for 2015 resulted in record sales for retailers with nearly $3 billion spent, up 12% from last year. A Facebook IQ study from earlier in the year also revealed that 1 in 3 purchases were done with mobile apps or through smartphones. This trend has left every business wondering if they’re ready to make the move to mobile-based sales.
There are a number of companies that have already taken the plunge — and their success shows that mobile selling platforms can work for a wide range of businesses. These five companies, for example, have paved the way for small companies across the country — and across the globe.
- HODINKEE — HODINKEE specializes in upscale watches so their mobile app combines news and information with quick and easy access to their inventory. They’ve incorporated Apple Pay into their system so customers can pay via thumbprint, eliminating the need to enter or store credit card information.
- Seedling Comic Studio — This company encourages creativity by allowing kids to create comics from photos. Parents can then purchase the comics through the mobile app, making the flow from creation to purchase seamless.
- Man Outfitters — The days of men avoiding clothes shopping is a thing of the past thanks to the ease of mobile apps like the one offered from Man Outfitters. Their app is simple, easy and seamless, making the shopping experience easier to do casually and thus more enticing for men.
- Chubbies Shorts — Speaking of men’s clothes, Chubbie’s specializes in shorts. With such a niche inventory, making the purchasing easy is vital and so their mobile app is designed to work quickly with little to no lag time.
- American Tea Room — This mobile app once again combines news, resources and links to their own products, making it a one-stop shop for all things tea related.
So what can companies learn from these examples? First, that mobile buying is the wave of the future. Secondly, that this highlight the need for an integrated POS app for inventory management that can work with mobile and other digital sale platforms in order to create even work and inventory flow. Those two steps can help take many companies to the next level and beyond.
