Article courtesy of Project iWeb”
Digital technologies and mobile devices have already changed the way that many professionals do business, but this trend is also impacting the manner in which retailers are reaching their customers. Although online shopping can be seen as the first revolution for consumer and business change, mobile shopping is rapidly growing as the way of commerce. While it may be obvious in a social sense to see that most people rely on their mobile devices throughout the day, retailers received a good confirmation of this over the post-Thanksgiving sales week.
With Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales extending through nearly a full week for some retailers, consumers are being given ample opportunity to take advantage of the sales events. Even with the increased time for specials in store, many buyers are still turning to mobile access to make their purchases.
Over this past Black Friday, nearly a third of all sales were completed through mobile shopping, while Cyber Monday sales reflected a similar trend. Mobile devices were used for over 26% of the sales over the full weekend, and were also used for over 21% of all the online purchases. These numbers are nearly doubled from the returns for mobile shopping from the year before.
There are several things that businesses can take away from this information. The first is that consumers are leaning towards the convenience of doing their holiday shopping from a smart phone or tablet, and the second is that businesses which do not have a mobile web app may be losing a significant amount of sales.
Project iWeb can facilitate this chance to capitalize on the online and mobile markets at once, by helping businesses establish a true mobile presence that is easy to manage. The result is that customers who are shopping online or on the go can get connected to the products and the content they need, while retailers can trust that they are reaching the entire audience that is their market.