Mobile E-commerce is still very much in its infancy, particularly shopping over a smartphone. As a result, companies are increasingly investing in more mobile shopping models in order to tap into this new growing market and testing new ideas as well as shopping models on how to exploit mobile marketing. A lot of buyers are making use of mobile and mobile apps and there is plenty of room for companies to leverage these tools and channels and sell their products and services. This is particularly important during the holiday shopping seasons when buyers splurge on new things and need efficient shopping platforms that make ordering easy.
There are challenges that customers face when it comes to shopping via smartphones and tablets. The tiny smart phone screens, for example, pose a huge challenge to the user experience. So how can companies provide the best experience in this kind of environment? Using an adaptive design strategy when designing your mobile commerce experience can help you in figuring out what will work best for your buyers. Here are some of the important features or changes that need to be implemented in m-commerce in order to better the experience for customers:
Have Navigation Styles for Everyone
There are various kinds of browsing styles employed by various users and when designing for the mobile experience, all of these need to be taken into account. Some of the common uses include the following:
Swipers: The swipers will spend a considerable amount of time thumbing through the pictures looking for information and the right product to purchase or the best deals that you are offering on your website. Users love to swipe and tap and it is important to factor this when you are designing a mobile shopping cart application for the best experience.
Searchers: Searchers have a more basic need. They just need to find a good product to buy and do it relatively quickly. A good mobile app must have a versatile search function or search button that users can deploy in order to quickly pick out the product that they are looking for. Search is also generally the best way for users to get their way around the mobile app experience. The search function should be obvious and prominent.
Leveraging the Power of Smartphones
A mobile shopping cart application must be designed in order to enhance the overall user experiences of the site browsers. For example, it should help users in quickly finding the best deals or information about product. Some apps such as barcode readers help users in quickly figuring out the authenticity of a product. When used properly, mobile commerce apps can also be great tools for up-selling your products or maximizing on your sales revenues. Apart from the barcodes, there are features such as geo-targeting that can be used in location-aware marketing. This is one of the main mobile e-commerce trends and is one of the best ways for companies to drive sales from customers who are in close proximity.
The ideas for leveraging the mobile commerce revolution are seemingly endless and businesses are only limited by their imagination on leveraging these mobile tools in order to drive the sale and engagement. Smartphones should offer users a new kind of interesting experiences and not more of the same of what they experience with their desktop browsers.
The Fat Design Concept
Smartphone users are generally looking for some key qualities in the user experience and these are readability and easy navigation. The design should be easy to swipe and also very intuitive. Even first-time users should be able to easily swipe their way and move around the app casually and efficiently. The app buttons should be big and also fat; use high contrast fonts on the buttons. Fat buttons are generally easily swipeable.
Summary
Mobile E-commerce is the new key driver of engagement, sales and revenues so investing in a mobile experience are really a foregone conclusion for most serious businesses. What matters is that it is done right. In order for your app to sell in a marketplace full of tens of thousands of apps, try to incorporate the following tips into the app design:
- Ensure the app is easy on the eyes. Users love good looking apps.
- Do not take shortcuts when building mobile apps for your business. Some companies will make a mobile experience that is simply a responsive version of their online ecommerce portal but this is not the way to fully leverage the power of mobile.
- Make sure the app is designed for various categories of mobile users including swipers and searchers.
- Improve usability and readability. Also make it easy to install.
- Incorporate new ways of shopping on your stores through the mobile app experience.
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