Christmas m-commerce, or how to prepare for the mobile shopping rush

In an equal month we will sit down to the Christmas Eve table. Christmas is just around the corner and there’s no denying it. It’s seen everywhere – clogged parking lots and crowded shopping malls, where Christmas trees look out from around every corner, and all we hear is “Last Christmas” alternating with “All I Want For Christmas is You”. The shopping frenzy has begun in earnest, and not just in stationary stores or online retailers.

Increased traffic can also definitely be felt in the m-commerce category as well – this year even more strongly than the previous one.

Black Friday on smartphones

The pre-Christmas period certainly brings with it an increase in m-commerce channels. Since smartphones have become part of our lives for good, the number of purchases made from the phone has been steadily increasing. However, not so much systematically anymore, but drastically, this rate may increase during the holiday season.

According to data collected by the Adobe Digital Index, the first clear signs of activity in the m-commerce sector date back to 2021. Last year, mobile purchases accounted for 14% of all online purchases during the holiday season. As of Black Friday (Black Friday, the super-sale day in the U.S. the day after Thanksgiving Day), the rate of purchases made via phone was 26%. This means that more than ¼ of online purchases were made from a smartphone.

This year, according to forecasts, the indicator was expected to go even higher, reaching a result of 31% – nearly 1/3!

Smartphone in the lead

Why we are increasingly reaching not even so much for a computer, but precisely for a phone to make purchases? Two arguments are key:

• Larger screens – Cell phones have gone through many trends, but with smartphones, more and more users adhere to the principle that bigger is better. Nokia’s first smartphone had a screen of 2.1 inch, now screens twice that size are the standard (and even more – the most popular size today is 5.1 inch). With such screens, users are increasingly using smartphones as replacements for computers or tablets. Interestingly, despite the numerical dominance of Android devices over Apple devices, it is iOS users who most often make mobile purchases. The large screens of the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus could give these models the title of truly “m-commerce” devices.
• Contactless mobile payments – The ease of making payments also speaks in favor of shopping on smartphones. The recently released Apple Pay is expected to further revolutionize mobile payments. Mobile shopping promotes the choice of more modern and faster solutions in the payment category, such as the following. m-wallet. Also, the mere simplification of the process of making a purchase on smartphones and tablets convinces people to shop precisely on these devices – the shopping process is reduced to an absolute minimum on them.

A good salesman is a mobile salesman

We don’t have Black Friday in USA, but the pre-Christmas shopping rush is certainly a common phenomenon. Many of us like to saunter around shopping malls, but more and more are choosing to shop online without having to move from home. Therefore, it is even the duty of every retailer to prepare properly for mobile customers.

If you didn’t manage to do it this year, make sure 2022 doesn’t surprise you. How to do it? Here are some tips:

• From the detail to the big picture – as in the creation of any solution, also in the case of mobile sites it is important to pay attention to the smallest details, as well as to a solid foundation. In order for a store to function well on smartphones, it is necessary to ensure that its base is as solid as possible. So the most important thing here is a stable platform for data analysis and management. This will also make it much easier to post the same products on different platforms.
• Personalization of content – Mobile shoppers on the go expect the smartphone to know their needs better than they do themselves. They want to receive content perfectly tailored to their needs. That’s why personalization and pertinent taregtting is the key to gaining satisfied (and consequently loyal) customers.
• Check, check, check – and act regularly. Conducting A/B testing and optimization serve the purpose of ensuring that your mobile site or app will never let your customers down. It’s better to wait for the launch and release a perfectly polished solution than to agonize over bugs that can only result in dissatisfied and impatient customers.
• Stationary mobility – it is worth taking care of the mobile aspect also in the stationary store itself. It’s worth taking care not only of the mobile experience of customers, but also of the employees you hire. Especially when the team consists of many people (and the store consists of many subsidiaries), it is worthwhile to provide them with technologies that will improve the operation of the store. Contacting customers, checking availability of goods, inventory or detailed product information – employees can gain quick and easy access to this data from their smartphone or tablet. It’s also worth ensuring free WiFi – not only for employees, but also for customers. Lidl and its LIMO system can become a model to follow – each store manager has his tablet in order to be in constant contact with other branches and keep an “eye” on the assortment of the entire store. All this on one screen.

It is worth taking these tips to heart when planning your marketing strategy not only for this year’s holidays, but for your business in general. Nowadays, every customer – even the desktop one – in practice is also a mobile customer at the same time. If he still prefers to buy products stationary and not on a smartphone, it does not at all mean that he will not use a smartphone to check product information in the store or pay for goods by contactless payment.

It’s worth keeping this in mind as you nurture and develop your mobile strategy regardless of the season and upcoming special occasions.