The Fallacy of Forgetting your Mobile Users

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Smartphones are everywhere these days, and are becoming progressively more and more integral to every aspect of our lives. We spend more than two hours a day engaged with our mobile devices, more time than we spend on desktop and laptop computers combined. But what’s even more important is how people are using them, and what it means for brands and businesses.

For starters, it isn’t just taking over e-commerce, although m-commerce has grown to nearly 20% of all online sales; it’s also making its way into brick-and-mortar stores. The percentage of shoppers using a smartphone to look for information about potential in-store purchases is at a whopping 61%, or more than half of all shoppers. These mobile-influenced shoppers also spent significantly more on average, and mobile commerce has grown by 45-to-50% from 2012 alone! The biggest value-add that the mobile experience gives customers are product information, price comparison, and (of course) customer reviews.

But don’t think for a minute that this means smartphones aren’t indispensable targets for businesses. Virtually all smartphone users are using their devices to get information about local businesses and for purchases while they’re there. In fact:

• 95% of smartphone owners use their device to look for local information,
• 77% will contact a local business as a result of what they find,
• 74% of smartphone shoppers wind up making a purchase either online, in-store, or on their phones,
• 71% of smartphone users wind up searching on their phone due to ad exposure, and, most importantly,
• 24% wind up recommending a brand or product to others as a result of smartphone searches.

So, what’s your strategy? No matter how big or small you are, you don’t want to leave it up to organic searches alone.

Are you going to let Google or Bing determine what your customers find? Are you going to let the Walmarts and Amazons and Neiman Marcuses of the world corner the market on a quality mobile experience for their customers? The point is, if you’re ignoring smartphones, you’re ignoring the needs of the majority of customers, and your competition isn’t. If you’re not reaching out to them, someone else will be, even in your own store.

Over the next three years, m-commerce and mobile influenced store sales are projected to more than double, accounting for as much as 15% of all sales. So forget about phones at your own peril, because the companies that wind up growing the fastest won’t.

-Ethan