M-Commerce is becoming a more and more important factor for business growth, and it looks as though that importance will continue to grow. Whether you are looking for reasons to begin using M-Commerce, looking for reasons to focus on it more, or hoping to convince management that it should be a large focus, knowing some advantages and disadvantages will help in the decision-making process.
Though there is a long list, the following are some of the top advantages and disadvantages of M-Commerce for business growth.
Advantages of M-Commerce
1. Global Reach
M-Commerce is limitless as far as location goes. You might have customers on the other side of the world order from your site. Many items for sale on both Amazon and Wish are from sellers in different countries, and many sales on both sites are completed via mobile devices.
2. Targeting at the Right Moment
If you optimize for local SEO for your mobile site, you can gain many more sales. In fact, as approximately 46% of Google searches are local searches. This may be hard to believe but if you search for a pizza restaurant, will it be one far away or will you choose “near me”?
As almost 92% of people who make local searches pick an option on the first page of results, M-Commerce and local SEO can bring in more mobile and physical traffic. Additionally, you can have ads set up to show on mobile result pages and websites thanks to geotargeting.
3. Minimal Limits to Order Processing
When making sales at a brick and mortar location, there are limits to how many transactions can be completed at once. The customers can only get through a line according to how fast cashiers can move. With M-Commerce, that is not the case. Many customers from multiple locations can place orders and checkout at once.
4. Great for Encouraging Impulse Purchases
How often have you purchased an item online or from your mobile device that you did not intend to purchase? Just as one will often make impulse purchases while standing in line at a physical store, they also often make mobile purchases that way, as well. By having your website mobile friendly and with emotional messaging, visitors will often make impulse purchases. Additionally, people will part with money on a debit or credit card much faster than they will cash. As electronic tender is the only form of payment accepted for M-Commerce, there is a much higher chance of visitors spending money.
Disadvantages of M-Commerce
1. Requires Technology and a Good Signal
M-Commerce relies on mobile technology, a good signal, and mobile-optimized sites. If a customer does no shopping via technology or does not own a smartphone, they will not be shopping from a mobile device. If those that have a mobile device do not have a good signal, they will not be making it to your M-Commerce site. And, if your site does not translate well into a mobile design or takes more than a couple of seconds to load, you will be missing sales.
2. Privacy
Privacy will always be a concern with M-Commerce and e-commerce. If there are scammers and hackers looking for access to people’s data, the concern will remain. You can make your customers feel more comfortable by securing your page as much as possible.
3. Impersonal Service
With M-Commerce, there is minimal to no personal interaction with the customer. Technology is basically all that is communicating with consumers. This means that the personal touch a customer will get in a brick and mortar store will be missing with M-Commerce.
4. Very Competitive
More and more businesses are adapting to M-Commerce. The number of smartphones and other mobile devices used for purchases continues to grow. As such, M-Commerce is becoming an extremely competitive market. Whereas brick and mortar stores often have something that sets them apart from others, M-Commerce sites can easily look and feel the same as all other. Standing out with M-Commerce sites is much more challenging.
It is difficult to overlook the importance of M-Commerce in modern business. As technology continues to improve and expand, that importance will only grow. Adding M-Commerce into your business plan is a very important step to take. However, you want to well since there is so much competition. Just throwing a plan together will not work. In order to make M-Commerce a successful aspect of your business, there are a few steps to get a good start.
First, optimize your website for mobile devices, and optimize for local SEO. Second, consider the messaging of your wording and images. Choose messaging that will evoke an emotional response from consumers to lead to impulse purchases. Third, secure your M-Commerce site as much as possible, and add some personalization to it. Lastly, perform market research to determine what works well for other M-Commerce sites, and then determine what you can do to set yours apart.
