Internet users are still on the rise worldwide.  Email, networking, blogs, banking and other types of useful stuff that internet has to offer is now common place.  How we access information, products and services is evolving yet again with handheld phones. Practically anything and everything you want is available online, even the proverbial kitchen sink, can be delivered to your doorsteps.  This is good news for consumers, but it will leave a lot of ecommerce business owners scrambling to catch up if they are not ready.

It is estimated that today one-third of the population shops online. The phenomenal and unstoppable worldwide increase in the use of mobile communication devices has paved the way of expanding the online commerce from electronic commerce to m-commerce, resulting in more opportunities for e-merchants to sell their products and services via mobile devices. Mobile purchase allows consumers to shop online at anytime in any location taking convenience and multi-tasking to a whole new level.

The worldwide increase in the use of personal digital assistants (PDAs) and cellular phones allowed businesses to adopt m-commerce as a more efficient tool of reachingand communicating to their customers. Instead of paper catalogues, retailers can send customers a list of products that the customer would be interested in, directly to their mobile device, or customer can visit a mobile version of a retailer’s e-commerce site.  Additionally, retailers can track customers and notify them of discounts at local stores that the customer might be interested in.

Based on Juniper Research, one of the top 10 wireless predictions for 2010 is that “mobile social networking to integrate with other applications including m-commerce. It further says that “With mobile access to social networks such as Facebook, MySpace and Twitter commonplace, adding commerce capability is the next step and will commence in 2010. Viral marketing is something that marketers aspire to achieve and there is no better way of reaching that goal for those younger than 35 than through social networking on the move,  featured already in many phones.”

Retailers should be smart to take advantage, and be innovative.  They can maximize the use of social networking sites to respond to customers’ inquiries or get customers’ suggestions to improve their products and services.

Armando Roggio in his article dated July 7, 2009 published through “Practical Ecommerce insights for Online Merchants says that “In the evolution of modern shopping, consumers have very recently progressed from visiting a physical store every time they wanted to buy something to shopping online via a desktop or laptop computer, at least some of the time.  The next evolutionary step will presumably have shoppers making more purchases online from mobile devices.  These mobile shoppers will soon be buying flowers via an iPhone during a train commute, ordering a gift for a new client on a mobile internet device, in the back of an airport bound taxi, or shopping for movie memorabilia on a Blackberry while walking out of the theater.”

Roggio also wrote in his September 24, 2008 article that “9 million Americans have already made a purchase from a mobile device, and perhaps half of the United States’ 250 million odd mobile handset users are willing to make a purchase in the near future, according to a recent study from The Nielsen Company, New York, N.Y.”

In a Google news article, “phones are flooding the market and the latest research confirms that these savvy Internet surfers are using their phones to do some serious online shopping.  According to the research just released from 2009 Surveys done by Compete about smart phone usage in the mobile commerce: the most popular shopping related activity is checking prices for items at their stores; the second most popular activity was accessing consumer reviews before they made a purchase; 37% of smart phone owners have purchased something non-mobile with their phone in the last 6 months; 19% of smart phone owners have purchased music; 14% have purchased movie tickets.”

It has been predicted that in 2010, US e-commerce merchants will generate between $120 billion and $200 billion sales, of which mobile commerce is only a small portion, but as mobile usage becomes mainstream, and as a variety of devices spreads out in the mobile web, online retailers should consider how much of their traffic and sales will come from mobile devices.

It had been reported that in 2005, online shopping sales in U.K. shot up to 8.5 billion pounds, accounting for 3.3 percent of the retail market,  and by 2010 it is forecasted that online sales will triple to about 25 billion dollars, or 8% of retail spending.  There is a considerable potential as customers becomes more confident in the security and services offered online, and as the use of online shopping technology becomes part of everyday life for which Mobile technology plays a significant role. Applications for the iPhone, such as Ocado on the Go, will make shopping on the move reality.

Last February 16, 2010, Business Wire reported that: “In 2015 shoppers around the world are expected to spend about $119 billion on goods and services purchased via mobile phones, which figure represents about 8% of the total e-commerce market.”Further, it says that “In the United states, mobile online shopping rose from $396 million in 2008 to $1.2 billion in 2009.

Growth of mobile commerce is inevitable.  But how should online merchants take advantage and prepare their sites for this next big trend in online shopping?  Also in the Google news article, “Compete says that mobile commerce is poised to explode in 2010, but there are still big obstacles in the way. Mainly mobile users are likely to abandon sites that are not optimized for phones.  For example, 8% of users abandoned their purchase because they were unable to actually purchase it on their phone, 45% of them left because the site would not load, and 38% left because it was not developed specifically for smart phone users.”

Is your e-Commerce site not  m-Commerce ready?  Here are some useful steps to make your site mobile commerce ready:

1. It is not sufficient for your site’s search to be accurate; it can also offer options and alternative spelling.  Typing on a handset is a little more difficult than typing on a full-sized keyboard.  For instance when you type “footb” the search field should suggest “football”.  This saves the user from typing the entire word or phrase, a big help when typing on tiny keys.
2. Develop mobile-friendly cascading style sheet (CSS) and domain for your website to enhance the shopping experience of your users.  Most online stores are designed to look good on a modern-flat panel monitor, but may have diminutive dimensions. Even when using a mobile browser that is designed to provide a desk-top like navigating experience, shopping from a smaller screen is harder for your mobile customers because of the need to constantly  zoom in and zoom out, and to scroll in all directions to see your products.  Be sure to test your site on different types of mobile browsers
3. There are some specific conversion issues that you need to consider to ensure that your website can be navigated properly from the smaller mobile handset screen before you can introduce your business as mobile-friendly.  Many of the mobile browsers read and interpret the web site code.  If you want a mobile commerce friendly site, consider removing code that a mobile phone might have difficulty with.  This makes fast downloading of your pages and a clear view of your store.
4. Prospective customers visiting your e-commerce site from a mobile device can utilize your existing shopping cart.  They can key in their credit card number, shipping address, and generally completes the transaction just like any other site visitor.  This may be enough, but offering a couple of flexible payment options may enhance your customer’s shopping experience.  First payment option you can consider to offer is Paypal, Amazon Simple Pay, and Google Checkout, all these services allow your customers to purchase without the need to type in a credit card number.  These services require extra steps to complete a check out process, but they are worth the effort because the customer no longer needs to submit a credit card number.
5. Second option you can consider to offer is mobile-specific payment like premium SMS-based payments or direct mobile billing.  Both of these options charge a customer’s mobile internet or phone bill for the transaction.  The mobile service provider will notify the merchant that the transaction is complete.
6. When your website becomes mobile-ready, add mobile-centric marketing to your marketing and advertising budget, which means you consider like SMS advertising, mobile search ads from Bing, Yahoo!, or Google, and even traditional advertising in locations frequented by mobile users, such as commuter rail stations or airports.
7. Use this FireFox Addon to view your site on the different mobile browsers and be sure your site is mobile friendly.

Tip – After installing, set for iphone, then go check out Facebook, ESPN, etc. We’ve found that most big sites redirect to m.domainname.com.

As new generation phones embeds in the daily life of almost everyone whether in their business or personal activities (among them surfing, socializing, banking, communicating, online shopping), truly growth of mobile commerce is inevitable.  Are you prepared for this?

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