Mobile commerce: what advantages for your online store?

Are you an online retailer looking to make your online store more attractive? Consider investing in mobile commerce, or m-commerce. With the rapid growth of this new sales channel, you need to adapt your strategy to meet consumers’ new buying habits. Smartphones and tablets are undeniably playing a central role in the digital transformation of brands and this in turn is reshaping the customer journey. With strong growth in recent years, m-commerce is now a key lever for developing sales and strengthening customer loyalty.

In this article, we’ll look at the following issues:

Why has mobile commerce become essential?
How can you optimize your store for success on mobile?
What mobile commerce trends can you anticipate to stay competitive in this sector?

Understanding the rise and challenges of mobile commerce

Mobile commerce refers to all transactions carried out on mobile devices, and this sales channel is booming. It’s worth taking a closer look at the key statistics, as they reveal the scale of the phenomenon and highlight the opportunities available.

Key figures: mobile commerce, an essential sales channel

M-commerce is particularly well developed in Asia (China, South Korea, Japan), and continues to grow strongly in Europe and North America. Adapting your site for smartphones now means securing a growing share of online sales and responding to new purchasing habits. Here are a few figures to prove it:

By 2024, m-commerce will already account for over 74% of global e-commerce sales¹.
Mobile commerce is growing 2.5 times faster than desktop e-commerce².

What are the expectations of m-commerce consumers?

Mobile commerce operates by its own rules, and here’s what consumers expect:

Convenience: buy anywhere, anytime.
Accessibility: find a product or promotion easily.
Time-saving: quick checkout, intuitive navigation.

The smartphone has profoundly altered the purchasing journey: today, everything starts with a mobile search, often followed by an online purchase or point-of-sale pick-up. As a result, a successful mobile conversion now requires a personalized, fluid experience designed for mobile use.

Optimize your store for mobile commerce in 4 steps

Your success in mobile commerce depends on a clear, well-structured strategy: here are 4 steps to follow to maximize your impact.

Identify your mobile audience

First and foremost, it’s essential to understand your mobile audience. An effective m-commerce strategy relies on a detailed understanding of each individual’s profile and usage. The main customer groups are :

Millennials and Generation Z, who are highly connected, keen to make quick purchases via mobile apps, and sensitive to flash offers and simplified payments.
Baby-boomers, who also use the mobile commerce site, but prefer clear, reassuring navigation and easy-to-access customer support.

Beyond age, it’s also buying habits that should guide your segmentation. For example:

Some mobile customers regularly order small items (low average basket, but high frequency): they will respond well to subscriptions or loyalty programs.
Others prefer more occasional purchases, but with high shopping baskets: in this case, reassuring content, guarantees or comparisons can make all the difference.

Good to know: by segmenting your audience both by generation and by purchasing behavior (frequency, average basket, browsing preferences), you can personalize your offers, your communication channels and your mobile experience. For example: offer 1-click mobile payment for young, regular buyers, and enhanced customer service or buying support for users less familiar with smartphone shopping.

Optimizing the mobile experience

To succeed in mobile commerce, your site and application must be perfectly mastered, including :

Responsive design: content automatically adapts to screen size.
Intuitive navigation: a simple menu, visible action buttons.
Good loading speed: a page should load in less than 3 seconds.

At Rakuten, for example, smartphone optimization is one of our top priorities. To achieve our objectives, our teams of experts are constantly improving the experience on the mobile application and site. So, if you sell on Rakuten, you benefit from a platform optimized for mobile commerce, a key asset for significantly increasing your conversions.

Developing an effective mobile marketing strategy

On a phone, each sales channel must be chosen according to your objective and your customers’ behavior. An effective marketing strategy must therefore be adapted to the mobile medium and customized for each target.

Here are three key levers to activate to boost your m-commerce sales:

SMS marketing: short, direct and to the point, it works very well for urgent or time-limited offers. For example: “(First name), get €10 free until midnight. Take advantage now! Personalization remains essential: first name, purchase history or customer segment can make all the difference.
Push notifications: very useful for relaunching an abandoned basket or announcing a flash promotion. They can be sent via a smartphone application or directly from a website (webpush), provided the user has consented to them. In fact, at Rakuten, we use webpushes and an innovative tracking system to precisely target buyers according to their purchasing behavior. The result: personalized reminders and the highlighting of our best offers, at the best time. Push notifications are therefore a powerful tool for promoting your products directly on your customers’ screens.
Mobile marketing applications: they offer a privileged channel for building customer loyalty. With integrated notifications, account management and loyalty programs, you create a strong bond with your mobile audience.

On the Rakuten app, for example, Club R members receive personalized offers, kitty alerts and promotions targeted to their profile

Secure your mobile commerce to inspire trust

In m-commerce, security is a very important issue. As a professional, you need to be able to :

Ensure the protection of mobile payments thanks to secure protocols (3D Secure, SSL certificates).
Protect your customers’ personal data by strictly complying with the RGPD.

Our advice: bet on transparency by clearly displaying your privacy and security policies. A secure smartphone site or application inspires trust… and encourages conversion!

The future of m-commerce: trends and prospects for online sellers

Mobile commerce is evolving at breakneck speed. That’s why, to stay competitive, you need to keep up with the latest trends and adapt your m-commerce strategy today.

Emerging trends in mobile commerce

M-commerce is evolving and being driven by numerous innovations. Here are a few key trends that are already redefining the mobile shopping experience:

Artificial intelligence: chatbots are already generating 80% of mobile customer service interactions in some industries³.
Augmented reality, such as virtual clothing fittings or 3D visualization of furniture from the comfort of your living room.
Voice commerce, which involves searching and buying via voice assistants like Alexa or Google Assistant.

The importance of omnichannel

An omnichannel strategy aims to deliver a seamless, consistent customer experience across all touchpoints, whether physical or virtual. So, to be efficient, mobile commerce must not be isolated. Always integrate it into an omnichannel strategy. To achieve this, you need to :

Create a seamless customer journey between the website, the mobile app and the physical store. A customer must be able to start their search on mobile, and finalize their purchase online or in-store, without any additional effort.
Synchronize data in real time across all your channels to offer a personalized experience: saved basket, purchase history, product preferences accessible everywhere.

The need for meticulous logistics to achieve success

The way you manage your logistics partly determines your success. What’s certain is that meticulous management of inventory, orders and deliveries is essential to providing impeccable service, whatever the point of contact your customers use. Why not choose Rakuten Fulfillment Network (RFN) as your logistics partner for optimum management? By making this choice, you benefit from :

Save valuable time by centralizing your orders;
Ultra-competitive delivery times (99.8% of orders delivered in less than 24 hours);
Unique dashboard for real-time inventory and sales management;
Customer service directly managed by RFN.

We are convinced that logistics performance is a decisive factor in the success of your mobile digital transformation. Take control and boost your company’s success today!

Sources :

¹Fevad, Figures on mobile commerce
²E-Marketer, M-Commerce is the powerhouse of US commerce
³Gartner, The future of retail by 2025