Mobile Drives Shift in Consumer Behavior
A July report from Forrester Research finds that “smartphones have changed shopping behavior significantly.” The message from Forrester: Firms must assess their mobile strategies now and decide upon when—not if—they should launch new mobile products and services. What does this trend mean for your business? |
Keeping pace with market shifts and innovations is all the more challenging in periods of budget constraint. Increasingly, business leaders must balance a velocity of future planning with ongoing initiatives to maintain competitive advantage for their firms. New data about the mobile usage and consumer demand is driving IT and other business units to factor mobile usage in their long and short term strategies.
eMarketer has estimated that nearly 80% of the 2010 US population has a mobile phone. Half of the connections to the internet are from a mobile phone.
Worldwide, mobile subscribers will surpass 5 billion in 2010 (that's over 70 percent of the world population) and is growing rapidly, led by China and India whose emerging middle class represents the largest growth market on the planet. There are 233 million mobile Web users in China alone. Half a billion people accessed mobile Internet worldwide in 2009. Usage is predicted to double within five years as mobile overtakes the PC as the most popular way to get on the Web. [source]
From an American business perspective, mobile telephony will have tremendous ramifications and will bring unforeseen opportunities to businesses that recognize and step up to the global marketplace.
Consumer Behavior has Shifted
Forrester Research’s July report, How US Shoppers Use Their Mobile, finds that nearly 1/3 of consumers are using their phones to locate a nearby store to find a specific product. Once in the store, 21% are using their phones to look up product information and 14% are comparing prices.
The data suggests that the retail industry should cater to this trend and develop mobile presences that guide consumers in their decision-making processes and make the information they seek easily accessible so they seamlessly move consumers to the cash register.
Whether you are a retail business or not, this shift in consumer behavior points to a need for all businesses to consider how mobile affects their strategies in marketing and delivery of products and services.
Local Mobile Search is Booming
As behavior goes more mobile, searching becomes more localized. Consider that eighty percent of searchers research online before purchasing in a 10-20 mile radius. Local search volume is growing exponentially at 50% every year, from 1 billion local searches per month in 2009 to 1.5 billion in 2010; 2.3 billion local searches per month are projected for 2011. The number one access method for local information is the mobile browser, currently with 20.7 million users per month. [source]
Optimizing for Mobile
The browser-based mobile Web experience is more important than ever, with dramatic growth in the usage of the mobile Internet. While the mobile phone is one of the most powerful means for businesses to reach and market to consumers, less than one third of US marketers think optimizing the mobile marketing experience is important to their consumers, according to an April 2010 survey.
Other studies also show slow uptake of mobile optimization by US companies. Multichannel Merchant found in February 2010 that nearly 80% of US multichannel retailers had no m-commerce capabilities, for example.
Smartphones will continue to drive the need for companies to evolve their marketing and product delivery; for most it will likely begin with the optimization of their websites for the mobile web.
Contact Software Consortium or call 1-877-850-9393 if you would like to discuss how to leverage our top-level talent to empower your business.
Subscribe To InSIGHT
A Monthly Knowledge Sharing Resource for Business and Technology Leaders
|
Enter your email address to sign up now for the InSIGHT newsletter 
For Email Marketing you can trust
|