Why mobile buying behavior is different from desktop
Anybody who has purchased something on a mobile phone will tell you that it is an entirely different experience from buying on a laptop or desktop PC.
There's no mouse or actual keyboard, only a touch screen. The movements you utilize are different, as is the trip from product selection to ultimate purchase, as is the screen display, and as is inputting information into a smartphone.
That implies your strategy for attracting, engaging, and converting mobile buyers will be different as well. Any e-marketer who wants to increase mobile sales must have a channel strategy that identifies and supports mobile buyers' behavior.
Smartphones have become an indispensible part of people's everyday lives, and they have changed the way we purchase and interact online. When it comes to searching, getting directions, reading the news, and shopping, most individuals now grab for their mobile device. It opens up new avenues for marketers to contact a continually connected group of customers.
So, how can you capitalize on such opportunities? It all starts with comprehension.
Certain statistics
Mobile shopping is fast overtaking desktop e-commerce. Mobile is currently the major channel for internet sales for marketers across all industries.
Smartphone internet usage surpassed desktop traffic in 2018, accounting for 52% of worldwide website views. Since then, it has routinely outperformed desktop by a factor of 60 to 30.
For merchants, mobile traffic outnumbers desktop traffic by 64% to 29%. 96% of smartphone owners use their devices to explore products and services.
Consumers and companies turned to e-commerce as a result of COVID lockdowns since they had no other option. This provided a large number of consumers with their first experience of the convenience and simplicity of purchasing online. They are now catching up to early adopters in their desktop-to-mobile buying journey.
Yet mobile purchasing entails more than just browsing websites on a smartphone...
Meet mobile shoppers within their locations
It is insufficient to just copy your desktop online shop on mobile. It's critical to be where your consumers are, and they're increasingly conducting their purchasing through apps.
Mobile-responsive websites are an important component of the mobile channel mix, but mobile applications convert at a considerably greater rate - up to three times more.
They also boost loyalty. Apps account for more than 70% of mobile purchasing transactions and users spend 90% of their smartphone time using them. These patterns may be found throughout the majority of the world's sophisticated mobile markets, including America, Europe, and Asia-Pacific.
Develop retail experiences that correspond to mobile behavior
As a result, mobile is substantial, relevant, and distinct from desktop. Let's take a look at what this means for mobile e-commerce design.
People despise typing on small displays
Many struggle with touchscreen typing for a variety of reasons, including small virtual keys, auto-complete mistakes, and difficult-to-find digits. Handset makers have attempted to improve the user experience with innovations like as haptic feedback, yet most consumers continue to reject it. Whenever possible, they avoid typing entirely. Apps make it easy to type less by saving crucial information such as login data, payment kinds, delivery addresses, and so on.
Sound is important
The majority of individuals leave their phone ringer on and the volume turned up. People like app alerts because they deliver rapid pleasure and a sense of closeness. They also like the sense of completion that comes with a tone confirming that a message has been delivered or read, money has been received in a bank or trading account, and so on.
If you want to maintain mobile consumers, you must please them
While everyone is worried about data privacy, users expect their phones to have all of their personal information, including their location, at their fingertips. This allows the phone to give push alerts depending on location, identify speech, and apply augmented reality to a physical store, among other things.
Little and unexpected details may please customers and convert them into purchases. Applications may take advantage of more of a phone's built-in features to do this.
Maintain the top-of-the-screen navigation
Something about bottom-located menus irritates mobile users. While it matches phone geometry and makes typing with one hand simpler, ethnographic focus groups have revealed that it turns people off. The eye prefers menus in the top left or right corner of the screen. Don't put up a fight. All primary top-line navigation bar choices should be on the main screen or in the top-of-the-page navigation.
Symbols may either assist or hinder
Icons are a two-edged sword. People may overlook them if there are too many for them to keep track of.
The X for close and the triangle for 'play' or 'advance' are two of the most easily recognized symbols. Consumers quickly know these icons for two reasons: they see them on every website they visit, and they virtually always imply the same thing. People get it regardless of the layout or graphic presentation.
They are all ruled by four touchscreen movements
Mobile consumers use gestures to accomplish anything on their devices. Despite the fact that voice search is gradually gaining popularity, many are still averse to adopting new ways to connect with their gadgets.
In a nutshell, they stick to what they know. These four gestures take precedence:
Vertical scrolling is the most common gesture. They recognize it from desktop use, therefore no visual indication is required to tell users to take action. People will scroll instinctively if no other obvious choice is available.
People understand screen swiping and what it accomplishes because of the popularity of social networking applications and horizontal picture carousels. Users will frequently attempt scrolling even in the absence of arrows or other visual indications.
Swiping and scrolling are both readily known, however tapping screens several times to perform an action is not. A user may repeatedly click on a link or button on a desktop PC screen. It happens less frequently on mobile. Tapping and mouse clicking are not interchangeable.
Another little used motion is screen pinching and zooming. Users will hunt for a link to the 'correct' mobile site rather than trying to contract or extend their way across a page if a website's display isn't optimized for mobile.
Next Steps:
Adapting to Mobile Behavior. With an increasing number of e-commerce customers experimenting with mobile shopping, you must display your online offer in a way that makes locating and purchasing things simple.
Are you considering how to improve your channel to address mobile purchasing behavior? We'd be delighted to assist. Examine Appily App Builder's solutions for improving mobile commerce performance.
