With ever-growing mobile device usage levels around the world, 2016 looks like the year when mobile e-commerce will take off, becoming for many online shoppers the best way to shop online. Whether you are selling food, clothing, hardware, or something else, focusing on mobile e-commerce in 2016 can be a great way to win over new customers, boost your sales, and grow your business.
Optimizing your e-commerce website’s user experience, not just its design, for mobile users, creating a mobile app, and using a more effective cloud inventory management software for small business together with a sales forecasting inventory tool, are only some of the ways you can win over mobile customers in 2016.
Mobile Traffic in Numbers
According to this TNW post about the state of e-commerce in 2015, mobile traffic has been gaining ground against non-mobile traffic, amounting to 38% of all total traffic. This finding reflects the vibrant mobile shopping trend kick-started by the iPhone and that has continued to grow as smartphones and tablets have become increasingly accessible all over the world.
Mobile-friendly websites in some industries already receive more traffic from mobile devices than from computers. A study by Shopify, the e-commerce platform that helps small and medium-sized e-commerce businesses better manage their operations, found that over 100,000 eStores using the platform get more traffic from mobile devices (50.3%) than from computers (49.7%).
It’s important to understand that apart from using Google to find products, online shoppers are now acting based on social recommendations, making more spontaneous purchases for products that don’t cost too much. What’s more, they are using the growing number of iOS, Android, and Windows Phone e-commerce apps provided by retailers instead of mobile browsers to enjoy a better optimized and more enjoyable online shopping experience, with convenient social logins, easy to use shopping carts, optimized product browsing and viewing, and convenient notifications for new products or out of stock items.
Are Your Ready for Mobile Users?
What all this means for your e-commerce business is that more than optimizing your store for mobile devices, you have to provide an engaging mobile experience as well as devote a significant portion of your marketing budget to reaching out to a broader mobile audience. At the same time, you want to use the right sales forecasting and automated stock management tools.
DataQlick is a mobile-friendly sales forecasting inventory tool and cloud inventory management software for small business that can help you maintain the right stock for your mobile shoppers, avoiding understock and overstock, as well as better understand customer behavior.
