Breaking Into Mobile Commerce

by Jessica Sanders, Chonies

With social media on the rise, and a new technology becoming available every day, your company is required to conform. Mobile commerce is the newest addition to the small business family, and worth considering. 46-percent of the adult US population has a smart phone, that’s a large chunk of your consumers that are spending hours with their face in a phone screen looking to shop. Whether you sell high fashion products or gourmet food, mobile commerce should be on your checklist of goals for 2012.

Why It’s Important

The definition of mobile commerce is the buying and selling of goods or services through a wireless device, most commonly, a smart phone. As a company, you want to reach as many current, potential and future customers as possible. Engaging them in a way that is convenient and exciting is your key to succeeding, and mobile commerce is the newest way to do that.

Whether you have an application, online easy purchasing, or a mobile checkout, it’s important that you are allowing your customers to thoroughly engage.

What Customers Want

Your customers want to access to you at their will. Waiting in traffic, watching a basketball game, or laying in bed, they want to interact with you. However, before you can give your customer exactly what they want, you have to know what that is.

• Payments on the go: Your customer wants their life to be easier because of you.
• Product browsing: Your customer wants to see what you can do for them.
• On-the-spot purchases: Your customer wants the latest and greatest, right now.

Here’s Your Chance

Now that you know what they want, it’s time to figure out how you’ll give it to them. Many well known companies, such as Starbucks, are innovating the mobile commerce world. They’re making their customers lives easier and faster with intelligent and strategic uses of this new technology.

• Check out – mobile: How many times does your customer put their phone down during a transaction?  Once to take out money, twice to sign a receipt, three times to grab their purchases. Make it easier by allowing them to check out on their phone with a customer card scanner. They load the funds, and it’s scanned from the phone like a credit card.
• Bar codes – mobile: You never know what mood your customers will be in when they hit your ad in the newest copy of Home and Garden. Place a mobile bar code next to the ad, and let them purchase the product right then and there. Popular stores such as Toys R Us have begun taking advantage of this.
• Product catalogs – mobile: Your customers want to have the opportunity to browse your catalog whenever they please; that means on their smart phone via mobile application. However, to do this effectively you need to enable your customers to browse, save a product for later purchase, or share with friends.

Before you lose customers to your competitors, give them a reason to stay loyal to you. While keeping up with the most recent technological advances is important, it’s nothing if you have no customers to please. Find out what they want, and bring it directly to their smart phone. It’s a win-win.

Jessica Sanders writes articles for the small startup, Chonies, giving small business, fashion business, marketing and SEO advice. When she’s not writing you can find her soaking up the sun on the beach or at the top of a mountain.