The m-commerce gap is the gap that exists between consumers’ mobile browsing time spent and their mobile buying habits.
Even though mobile usage has surpassed desktop usage since 2014, mobile shopping patterns have not quite caught up. Consumers are still making more purchases and spending more money via desktop.
Why this gap?
Four of the top five reasons cited by consumers involve basic usability difficulties.
However, it’s safe to say that large numbers of fashion consumers use their mobile devices to research products and compare prices, but turn to their desktops (or visit stores) to actually make their purchases. Therefore, Desktop has a high-intentioned purchaser, whereas in mobile, people are shopping and browsing casually.
How to reduce it?
The existence of the m-commerce gap also means that there is a huge opportunity for digital marketers to capitalize on. Retailers (main e-commerce industry) cannot treat mobile as a secondary channel. They need to prioritize their mobile commerce approach. Let us take a look at factors affecting retailers’ ability to drive mobile transactions.
1. Engagement
Users visit significantly fewer pages in apps than they do on computers. This has a lot to do with the way that consumers engage with their phones. They have shorter session times on mobile than they do on desktop, but they use their mobile devices much more frequently.
Therefore, retailers and all businesses need to develop engaging app experiences created with the nuances of mobile in mind to drive maximum action, including transactions.
Rather than resizing the same content onto smaller screens, businesses must rethink how to execute commerce on mobile devices altogether.
Two key insights
Visual navigation. In retail, it’s critical to display products effectively. Humans are visual. It takes three seconds to process a headline, but as little as 13 milliseconds to process a photo. Images are processed in a different part of the human brain and trigger stronger emotional responses. It’s the same part of the brain that allows us to recognize faces much faster than we can recall names.
One-tap buy. The most critical part of mobile conversion is when a user must enter data. Registering or logging into an account and checking out are difficult. These instances are almost certainly where consumers who would have converted give up and go back to desktop. Checkout has perhaps the biggest impact. Ninety-four percent of mobile visitors that get to this stage do not complete their purchase. Why? It’s too difficult to type credit card details while on the move.
2. Apps or mobile web?
In-app conversion rates are roughly two to three times higher than their average mobile web conversion rates and there is little innovation happening on the browser.
Does that means that every e-commerce brand has to invest in a mobile app ? Certainly no.
For one, apps need to be built and updated in parallel to m-commerce sites, meaning a second technology development stream. Then there's the reality that we spent 80 percent of our “app time” on our favourite three apps — and, of course, these are much more likely to be social platforms like Facebook, Instagram than retailers. That means a lot of retail apps are downloaded and never used again (while many more are never even downloaded in the first place).
Only brands with a high percentage of loyal repeat customers may consider it a worthy investment.There is a correlation between the strength of the brand and the success of the app
To counter that, many retailers are investing in a web-based mobile experience that rivals the user-friendliness of an app.
Ultimately, different retailers will adopt different strategies suited to their overall strategies and the behaviour of their customers, but one thing is clear: as mobile usage grows and grows, businesses need to act fast to avoid falling behind.
3. Measurement
Retailers can also drive mobile commerce by creating more-efficient approaches to mobile attribution.
There are a variety of attribution tools on the market that help businesses better understand and optimize their purchasing funnel, just as they do on desktop.
For example, a desktop purchase could have actually been inspired by a mobile ad. Advertisers will have an easier time driving results if they can see the big picture.
Retailers that invest in user experience, measurement tools and performance advertising solutions will be able to create and control their mobile transaction funnels most effectively and ultimately bridge the mcommerce gap.
In soccer, a goal is the result of much more than the last kick. Attributing the success of a mobile marketing campaign to the last click only, with the latter still often taking place on desktop, distorts results and leads to suboptimal budget allocation.
Retailers who play it smart and fast on mobile and make their transaction funnel fully mobile ready will likely benefit the most and win the crucial market share that will allow them to succeed in tomorrow’s retail environment.
Conclusion
Retailers that invest in user experience, measurement tools and performance advertising solutions will be able to create and control their mobile transaction funnels most effectively and ultimately bridge the mcommerce gap.
Sources :
https://www.retaildive.com/ex/mobilecommercedaily/how-retailers-can-close-the-mcommerce-gap
https://www.businessoffashion.com/articles/fashion-tech/mobile-commerce-gap
https://www.practicalecommerce.com/3-ways-to-narrow-the-mobile-commerce-gap
https://www.adjust.com/blog/how-to-improve-mobile-conversion-rates-ecommerce-apps/
https://www.retaildive.com/ex/mobilecommercedaily/how-retailers-can-close-the-mcommerce-gap
https://applift.com/blog/mcommerce-gap
