Mobile phones, particularly smartphones have become the new best friend of billions of people across the world. Beyond simply making calls, they are used for messaging, accessing social media, playing games, watching videos, listening to music, reading news, and shopping. As smartphone technology has evolved, their capabilities have grown exponentially and they can function as a mobile computer. Online shopping has already been gaining immense popularity due to the convenience and flexibility it offers, and shopping on mobile devices or mobile commerce is the new frontier.
By the end of the year 2021, there will be an estimated 3.8 billion smartphone users across the globe. In Australia, by 2025 there will be 21.5 million smartphone users, with a market penetration of 80.1 percent. According to Statista, in 2021, it is expected that 72.9% of all retail eCommerce will be generated through mobile commerce. The prevalence of mobile commerce is only expected to grow further, as mobile devices such as smartphones, tablets and iPads become more widely used. In comparison to desktops and laptops that use eCommerce, mobile devices can be used at any time and anyplace without carrying a large laptop.
The great news is that if you are planning to launch an eCommerce business, expanding into mobile commerce is easy. Leading eCommerce platforms such as Magento and BigCommerce offer mobile commerce solutions, enabling you to offer your customers a seamless shopping experience across devices. It might seem unnecessary when you are already investing in an online store, however, the potential of mobile commerce make it an opportunity you should not miss out on.
What is Mobile Commerce?
Mobile Commerce, also known as mCommerce, refers to any kind of transaction that takes place on a mobile device such as a smartphone, tablet, or even a smart wearable device. The basic concept is similar to that of eCommerce – purchasing online, but the medium is different. In comparison to eCommerce, mCommerce offers even greater flexibility. While many customers, especially with lower incomes or in rural areas may not always have access to laptops or desktops, smartphones have a significantly higher penetration rate.
Over the years, mobile device technology has massively advanced, from the first simple mobile phones in 1973 to the current touch-screen smartphones with operating systems and internet capabilities. The possibilities of mobile devices were unlocked with the development of smartphones with operating systems in the late 2000s. In 2010, tablets gained popularity, boasting of a larger screen than smartphones but retaining the mobility as compared with laptops or desktops. By 2017, the mobile operating systems have had majority internet use, and have brought internet access to lower income and rural areas.
The growth in mCommerce can be credited to developments in smartphone and mobile device technology, that have led to lower costs of mobile devices with enhanced functionalities. Multiple facets of mobile devices are involved in providing a decent mobile shopping experience, including support for internet access, decent manoeuvrability, security for mobile payments, and adequate displays. The mobile device needs to be able to offer users a way to browse items, select desired items, and make secure payments. Zoom in features, easy scrolling and good quality images help provide customers with an enjoyable shopping experience, despite the smaller screen.
Mobile commerce is broadly classified into three categories: mobile shopping, mobile banking and mobile payments. Mobile shopping is most similar to eCommerce, where a mobile device is used to directly purchase products or items. Mobile banking is offered by banks and is similar to online banking, where you can conduct banking transactions through the bank’s dedicated mobile app or web optimised site. Mobile payments focus on transferring money through a mobile device and this can be through mobile wallets or even by means of mobile banking. Typically, mobile payments are an important part of mobile shopping.
Advantages of Mobile Commerce
There are a wide range of benefits of mobile commerce that make it a worthwhile investment for any business or brand. Depending upon your target customers, their location and demographic, you can experiment with the complexity of your mCommerce offering.
Here are the top advantages of mobile commerce:
- Access to Wider Customer Base
For any business, a basic premise is that access to a larger customer base results in greater chances of sales, profits and success. An online store gives access to a significantly bigger customer base than a traditional offline store, and that customer base increases even further with mobile commerce. A higher percentage of people have smartphones and mobile devices as compared to laptops and desktops.
Every person that uses a mobile device becomes a potential customer, giving you a massive user base for generating, nurturing, and converting sales leads. Furthermore, customers spend a lot of time on mobile devices, and have time to browse mobile shopping. Also, users are already familiar with their smartphone and can easily navigate for shopping. Thus, with mobile commerce there are more potential customers and the average time spent is also likely to be higher, increasing chances of sales.
- Improved Customer Experience
A positive customer experience is essential towards building a loyal customer base and long-term success of your brand. With advanced operating systems and processors, smartphones and mobile devices offer an improved customer experience, complete with personalisation. Mobile commerce is fast, interactive, and convenient. All the benefits of eCommerce are available, such as availability of a wide range of products, competitive pricing, good deals, discounts, and multiple payment modes.
Additional features include personalised recommendations, augmented reality, chatbots and more. Based on your niche, target customers, and the products you offer, you can customise your offerings. For example, if you are selling shirts, you can support virtual trying on of shirts so that customers can see how it will suit them. As most mobile devices have cameras and galleries, photos will readily be available.
- Excellent Scalability
Growth is a primary goal for nearly every business, whether that is in the form of more sales, larger stores, multiple branches, diversified catalogue or any other form of expansion. Mobile commerce offers excellent scalability, and you can easily expand your mobile device offerings whenever required. Both dedicated mobile apps and mobile optimised sites are fully customisable and scalable. With the growth of mCommerce and smartphone technology, you can seamlessly add on to your features to keep it up-to-date.
Tracking the performance of your mCommerce platform can help you identify when you need to upgrade. Parameters such as total mobile traffic, average page loading time, and transaction times can indicate the performance of your site. If page loading is slow, or if images or features are not fully accessible, it might be time to revise the mobile app or site. A slow and sluggishly performing mCommerce platform can be detrimental to your business image and deter users from visiting again. With adequate care and maintenance, you can have a fully scalable mobile commerce setup at a reasonable cost.
- Omni-Channel Sales
The goal of omni-channel commerce is to offer a seamless customer experience across multiple sales channels, increasing the number of touchpoints used to engage customers. Targeting customers with an omnichannel sales approach significantly increases your brand value and sales potential, building customer trust and engagement. Omnichannel sales has become easier than ever as customers engage with multiple sales channels online and offline. By taking your products to where the customers are, you can considerably boost sales performance.
Most often, mobile commerce is used in combination with either an eCommerce site or an offline business. As your target customers undoubtedly will be using a smartphone, it is an easily accessible and effective sales channel. Leading eCommerce platforms support omnichannel sales through online stores, online marketplaces, social media platforms and mobile devices. With an integrated approach, customers can continue their shopping on mobile devices or laptop/desktops at the online store site using the same registered account. All the shopping history details, past purchases and preferred payment options are accessible in eCommerce or mobile commerce. Customers get the complete flexibility to switch devices without interrupting the shopping experience.
- Multiple Payment Options
Offering customers multiple payment methods that are secure, familiar and easy to use is a great way to increase sales. Mobile devices are commonly used for contactless payments through mobile wallets, mobile payment services and mobile banking. When users are already familiar with mobile payment modes for other applications, they are more likely to feel comfortable with using those payment modes for mobile shopping. The mobile payment market is already growing at a rapid pace, and is expected to grow even further in coming years.
Support mobile commerce and mobile shopping by easily incorporating multiple payment modes. Integration with popular payment methods is simple and completely secure, reducing the risk of fraud and losses. Instead of setting up new payment methods with an eCommerce site, with mobile commerce customers can use familiar payment methods. With multiple payment options, customers are more likely to shop frequently and with higher average order values. Check and survey the market and your target customers to find out the top payment methods you should be supporting.
- Effective Marketing Tool
In today’s highly competitive world, marketing plays a big role in increasing awareness about a brand, gaining new customers, and repeat visits from existing customers. Traditional forms of marketing can be expensive, with an uncertain return on investment. Digital marketing is low cost and effective for mobile commerce and eCommerce, depending upon the target customers. Social media is a popular avenue for marketing and can be used to leverage greater results in mCommerce sales. A common use of mobile devices is for social media, and by using social media marketing, you can directly supplement sales.
Mobile commerce has shown excellent results from marketing, and is an effective marketing tool as well. Using push notifications, location tracking and other information from mCommerce, you can develop marketing campaigns with stronger results. Mobile advertisements have been found to have a higher click-through rate (CTR) as compared to desktop advertisements. Although mobile commerce hasn’t yet surpassed desktops in conversion volumes, leads from mobile searches are more likely to trigger action.
- Easy to Manage
An excellent advantage of mobile commerce is that it is easy to manage once you have your offering ready. The degree of complexity involved in launching mobile commerce will depend upon whether you choose a dedicated mobile app or a mobile optimised site. In general, setting up a mobile optimised site will be faster, and many eCommerce platforms already have layouts and themes that are mobile optimised. A dedicated mobile app may take longer to setup. Nevertheless, once your mobile commerce portal is ready, management can be streamlined and integrated with other sales channels.
Whether you have an existing eCommerce store or an offline store, you can merge their management into an integrated system. Any and every order placed can be collated and accordingly the inventory can be updated directly. For better inventory management, you can use automated notifications for low stock alerts. From the admin panel, you can view all the orders, customers, popular products, purchasing trends, and more, depending upon the eCommerce platform you use. Using insights from mobile commerce, you can effectively deploy customised marketing campaigns and accurately measure their performance.
- Greater User Engagement
User engagement is key to building long lasting relationships with customers, encouraging their loyalty, and increasing your sales. As customers spend a larger amount of free time on mobile devices as compared to other sales channels, there is greater potential for engagement. There are several different methods that merchants can utilise to increase mobile engagement, such as push notifications, location tracking, social media integration, retail integration, recommended products, discounts, and loyalty programs. Customer support is fully supported, so customers can quickly clarify any doubts they may have.
Mobile commerce provides access to a wide range of analytical reports that help you learn more about your customers, facilitating personalised service. Each customer can create a unique profile and account, and based on their browsing history, receive custom recommendations. Offering dedicated discounts, deals and promotions specifically for mobile commerce is an effective way to boost the popularity of your mobile app or mobile-optimised site. The amount of time people spend on social media networks on mobile devices is continually on the rise. Integrating social media with mobile commerce is a powerful way to increase customer engagement.
- Higher Sales
At the end of the day, the single biggest advantage of mCommerce is that it will boost your sales and profits with a minimal investment. The costs involved in launching and managing mobile commerce are relatively low, apart from the initial setup. With mobile commerce, you can reach a wider range of customers, influence existing customers and increase the number of purchases as well as average order value. Mobile commerce is a great way to improve branding and increase visibility for your business. Implementing marketing campaigns is inexpensive and offers excellent results.
The popularity of mobile commerce is growing at a phenomenal rate, and as more and more sales take place through mobile commerce, the sooner you start, the better. For an existing online or offline business, you can add on mobile commerce capabilities while integrating the management with the existing business. On mobile devices, customers can browse and purchase products faster, speeding up the overall purchasing process and leading to higher sales for you. Support straightforward and fast transactions, and you can witness a significant increase in sales.
Disadvantages of Mobile Commerce
As with any business decision, it is important to weigh out the disadvantages against the advantages offered. Mobile commerce offers an abundant range of benefits, however there are some drawbacks that need to be kept in mind.
Here are the top disadvantages of mobile commerce:
- Increasing Competition
Competition is rampant in nearly every field and continues to grow in mobile commerce. With the ease of launching mobile commerce and its potential for profits, more merchants are launching dedicated mobile apps or mobile-optimised eCommerce sites. There are millions of apps available worldwide, and nearly 546 million shopping apps in total, with the Google Play Store offering 2.87 million apps by the end of 2020. As a result, if you plan to enter the field of mobile commerce, it can be challenging to initially establish your name and place in the market.
Shopping apps have had the highest growth in number of downloads, increasing by nearly 40%. The clear interest of customers in using shopping apps is great news for merchants, and many businesses are expanding to mobile commerce. Although the level of competition in mCommerce may be daunting, with a well-researched business plan and quality offering, you can still achieve success.
- Regular Need for Updates and Optimisation
Technology advances at a rapid pace, and especially when it comes to smartphones, tablets and other smart mobile devices. With new models and features coming out every year, sometimes even quicker, mobile commerce needs to be up-to-date. As a result, mobile commerce involves regular updates and optimisation. The mobile commerce interface needs to be compatible with a wide range of mobile devices with varying screen sizes, processors, internet support and overall capabilities. This can make updates challenging as you do not want to lose effectiveness for older mobile devices while also being optimised for new mobile devices.
Regularly updating your mobile commerce offering can be time-consuming and expensive, but it is a necessity to stay ahead of competition. Slow performing, basic, and out-dated mobile commerce can be discouraging for customers, particularly if your competition has more advanced offerings. To ensure that you have good quality and effective mCommerce, you need to periodically revise and update the app or mobile optimised site. Keep an eye on competitors and innovations in mobile device technology for successful mCommerce.
- Security Compliance
In any kind of online transaction, security is paramount, and this includes eCommerce and mCommerce. Financial details and payment methods that you offer customers need to be entirely secure and reliable. Any breach in safety can be immensely damaging to your brand image and can detract customers. Apart from the payment and address details of the customers, you also need to ensure that other privacy details are completely safe. Customer data that is used for business purposes, analytics and to guide marketing, needs to be kept secure and you also need to meet compliance requirements for privacy regulations.
Based on the location of your business and the customers, there can be additional tax laws and regulations applicable. It is also important to make sure that your business is safe from fraudulent activity, and protect all sensitive data from hackers. Majority of security compliances can be identified and met at the time of your mCommerce launch, and periodically revised. Taking the help of experienced mCommerce or eCommerce developers can help you proactively make your mobile commerce site or app fully secure and safe.
Mobile Optimised Site Vs Mobile App
Mobile commerce is available in two main types of formats; a mobile optimised site or a mobile application. Both are designed for use on mobile devices and are commonly used for mobile shopping. However, the process to access them is different as are the features they support. When you decide to venture into mCommerce, it is necessary to first choose the format you wish to support, or if you want to offer both.
- Mobile Optimised Site
A mobile optimised site, also known as a mobile website is similar to any typical website that you would visit on your laptop or desktop in a traditional browser. It has HTML web pages that are browser based and linked together. Mobile websites are accessed through a mobile browser over the internet.
The primary distinguishing factor between standard websites and mobile websites is that they are designed for different interfaces. A mobile optimised site has a layout and design that suits smaller screen sizes and is compatible with touch-screen operations. Non-optimised web sites do not fit the smaller mobile device screens and can be difficult to operate. A mobile website often includes zooming in features, click-to-call options and location-based mapping.
Many websites have a responsive theme option built-in, adapting the original website to suit the device used. For mCommerce, however, the site needs to do more than simply display the website content; it needs to be capable of processing transactions while using the small screen real estate. Customers should be able to browse, view, review and purchase from the mobile website, and so basic responsive themes may not be suitable. Experienced eCommerce platforms, nevertheless, often offer mobile responsive themes that are suited for mobile shopping.
There are multiple advantages of mobile websites, which makes them immensely popular. Top advantages inlude:
1. Availability: A mobile website is instantly available to customers without any need for any downloads. This makes it easier for customers to browse with committing or waiting for lengthy downloads.
2. Compatibility: They can be accessed by even the most basic of smartphones, tablets and other mobile devices, all that is needed is a web browser and internet connection.
3. Visibility: As a website, mobile optimised sites can easily be found through search engine results and industry-specific directories. With adequate SEO, you have greater visibility.
4. Easy Upgrades: Dynamic and flexible, updating and adjusting a mobile website is simple. By changing the webpage, all the upgrades are visible for users without any updating on their end.
5. Shareability: Mobile websites can easily be shared between customers, by directly sharing the URL, and additional sharing buttons can also be supported. By providing easy sharing options, customers are more likely to promote a business they are happy with.
6. Cost-Effectiveness: Developing a mobile website is similar to creating a typical website, and is a cost-effective process. Fewer updates are required, so merchants save more on time, money, and resources.
7. Familiarity: A mobile optimised site is familiar for customers as they have undoubtedly been using other websites both on laptop/desktops and mobile devices. Customers know how to operate mobile websites and have a greater likelihood of frequently using familiar mobile sites.
The biggest disadvantage of mobile optimised websites is that the feature capabilities are limited when compared with dedicated mobile app. There is limited flexibility and scope for experimentation if you want to offer customers a personalised shopping experience. With a mobile website, you are restricted with the format and features, making it challenging to differentiate your brand from competitors.
- Mobile App
The growing capabilities of smartphones and mobile devices with operating systems has further spurred the rise in popularity of dedicated mobile applications. They are available in many categories, ranging from games to entertainment, photo & video, utilities and shopping. A mobile app is a full-fledged application that needs to be downloaded and then installed by the user before accessing it. Based on the type of app and its capabilities, some features may also be usable offline.
Mobile applications are typically developed targeting a particular platform or operating system, for example Android or iOS. Users can then download the app from the provider for their particular devices, for example, Google Play Store, Apple App Store. An app will generally have some form of minimum system requirements, and will only work on those devices that meet those basic requirements.
With a dedicated mobile app, you have unparalleled freedom in the interface and features you wish to support. The app can be as simple or complex as you want. Other mobile device features can also be incorporated, such as access to the camera or gallery for virtual try-ons. The navigation, interface and the way that customers interact with the mobile app can all be customised.
There are several advantages of mobile applications that have led to their popularity. Top benefits are:
1. Customisation: A dedicated mobile app can be customised in any way you want, and you can choose everything from the layout to interface and features.
2. Branding: Differentiate your brand from competitors and make your business memorable with a mobile app. As an app can be fully customised, you can create a greater branding impact with it.
3. Utilising Device Capabilities: An app can leverage the device capabilities of customers such as the GPS location or camera to support more functionalities. These features include push notifications, alerts, automatic updates, camera and gallery access, tap to call.
4. Personalised User Experience: With a mobile app, you can offer customers personalised shopping experience. When the app is downloaded, customers can set up their preferences for tailored performance and recommendations.
5. Offline Access: Internet is not mandatory for dedicated mobile apps, and depending upon the app development, it can offer various features in offline mode after the initial installation. Customers have an added convenience of being able to browse the app offline.
6. Better Customer Engagement: Mobile apps immerse the user in their created environment and provide better customer engagement with faster response timings and interactivity, creating a positive user experience and increasing sales. Payment modes can be directly integrated with your app to support faster conversions.
7. Support for Targeted Marketing: A mobile app is a powerful tool for targeted marketing. It provides you with data that can be used for targeted marketing. It also acts as a medium, as you can utilise the app, push notifications, and alerts to instantly inform users about new promotions.
Disadvantages of mobile applications are that they can be expensive to launch and maintain, and have different compatibility across devices. They require effort and initiative on the part of customers to download and install the app before the customers can use it. If you have the budget for a mobile application and a reasonable level of brand awareness, it can be a powerful way to maximise mobile commerce.
- Mobile Website and Mobile App
An amazing part of mobile commerce is the flexibility it offers, and you do not necessarily have to choose between mobile websites and mobile apps. Many brands choose to have both, typically launching a mobile website first, and following up with a mobile app. Since mobile websites are cost-effective and easy to setup, they can be launched alongside your eCommerce digital store, to give you mobile commerce coverage. As and when your brand awareness increases, and based on the success of your mobile website, you can plan to invest in a dedicated mobile app.
Customers will have the opportunity to learn about your brand and try out shopping on the mobile website. At any point of time, they can download your mobile app for an immersive shopping image with advanced features. Starting with a mobile website is a low-commitment way for customers to engage with your brand, and is effective for new customers. For returning customers, the app can encourage further purchases and higher average order values. Supporting both mobile websites and mobile applications is a great way to increase your branding and boost sales.
Role of eCommerce Platforms in Mobile Commerce
If you want to offer any type of online shopping, whether through laptops or desktops or mobile devices, an eCommerce platform is an ideal place to start. An eCommerce platform gives shape to your vision, and is where you can setup the shopping interface, display products, accept payments, process shipping, manage the backend, and manage orders.
Mobile commerce is most effective when it is supported by either an online store or an offline store. Offering only a mobile website or shopping app without a backing website or store can reduce visibility, impact your credibility, and discourage customers. While setting up a brick-and-mortar store is a big undertaking with significant risks, expenses, and challenges, eCommerce is easier and cost-effective.
There are multiple eCommerce platforms available in the market that can help you set up an online store. Two of the most prominent and popular eCommerce platforms are Magento and BigCommerce. Designed to enable and promote online shopping, eCommerce platforms facilitate large product catalogues, secure payment methods, and transparent shipping. They are easy to manage and can generally be overseen with a centralised admin panel. If you would rather focus on mobile commerce, you can allocate more funds for mCommerce marketing while having a basic eCommerce site.
For best results and a cohesive sales approach, you should target customers with eCommerce and mCommerce, giving customers the choice on how they wish to shop. With quality eCommerce platforms, you can offer a seamless shopping experience to customers on laptop/desktops and mobile devices. A single customer account can be used from any device, encouraging customers to shop wherever they may be.
Depending on the service provider, eCommerce platforms have varying features for mobile commerce. Consider the mCommerce capabilities an eCommerce platform offers when you choose which platform to use. While migrating between platforms is possible, it is a time consuming and expensive process that can negatively affect brand image.
1. Magento Mobile Commerce
Launched for the first time in 2007, Magento is one of the most popular eCommerce platforms currently available, already powering more than 260,000 sites. It is built with open-source technology and is written in PHP, providing excellent support for customisation in its look, content, and functionality. Magento Open Source is available for free download while Magento Commerce is a paid solution with optional cloud hosting (Magento Commerce Cloud). Fast and secure, Magento offers an optimum online shopping experience.
Magento supports mobile commerce with mobile websites that are adapted from the original eCommerce website you create. Backed by Magento’s technology stack, mobile shopping is optimised and fully secure. There are dedicated Magento features for mobile commerce, including the following:
- Responsive Themes: With Magento, you get responsive themes that can automatically adjust to the screen size and device the user has. The navigation is simple and designs are eye-catching with fast image and video loading, and quick overall page loading speeds. As the themes for your eCommerce site and mobile website are similar, the shopping experience is cohesive and uniform. There is support for Android, iPhone and Mobile Opera browsers. The interface maximises the use of touch screens to swipe products for browsing, zoom in and out, scale images, and drag and drop to add to shopping cart.
- Progressive Web Applications: By leveraging Magento support for Progressive Web App (PWA), you can enhance mobile website capabilities and incorporate features of mobile apps. The Magento PWA Studio helps you create mobile websites that have the searchability and buying experience of eCommerce with the convenience and utility of mobile apps. These PWAs can be used to boost conversion rates and increase user engagement. Magento headless architecture and robust GraphQL API layer provides flexibility to create PWA Studio based experiences or to build entirely custom front ends. With the integrated Page Builder drag-and-drop content creation tool, you can further customise the PWA Studio based content.
- Mobile Friendly Checkout: Even as mobile traffic increases, mobile conversion rates are still low, and the checkouts are often a reason why. Lengthy or cumbersome checkout processes are discouraging and lead to abandoned carts. Magento offers mobile friendly checkouts with a streamlined checkout process, and instant purchase options. There is support for seamless integrations with popular payment gateways such as PayPal, making it easier for customers to complete their transactions. Based on the popular payment options in your region and amongst your target customers, additional payment gateways can be incorporated. The instant purchase option allows customers to directly speed through the checkout using previously stored information.
Overall, Magento is an excellent eCommerce platform with extensive customisation capabilities and full support for feature-rich mobile websites. Magento mobile commerce provides the ease and flexibility of mobile websites while also supporting app-like features for an app-like shopping experience. Managing the mobile website is simple with a streamlined admin panel, and advanced analytics. Magento certified developers can help you design and launch a Magento-based eCommerce site, and also setup mobile commerce functionalities.
2. BigCommerce Mobile Commerce
First launched in 2009, BigCommerce is a vastly popular eCommerce platform, offering Software as a Service (SaaS), hosted eCommerce solutions. Across 65 countries, there are more than 90,000 sites currently using BigCommerce, and the numbers continue to rise. It is fully scalable and immensely user-friendly and is available in a subscription format. The BigCommerce monthly subscription plans include cloud hosting and the eCommerce platform in the form of a SaaS. Based on the volume of sales and business growth, you can move between subscription plans as need arises.
BigCommerce facilitates mobile commerce through responsive eCommerce sites that automatically adjust to mobile devices. Focusing on power and security, the BigCommerce mobile websites have excellent performance with fast loading speeds. It offers dedicated BigCommerce features specifically for mobile commerce to increase mobile sales without additional effort. These features include:
- Accelerated Mobile Pages: Slow loading pages can be a major deterrent for mobile commerce customers. BigCommerce is the first eCommerce platform to natively integrate Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP). With the AMPs, you get improved search engine visibility and can offer customers faster page load speeds. It simplifies the organisation of category and product pages, making it easier for customers to navigate and find what they are looking for. Pages with AMP load nearly instantly, giving users a fast and more engaging shopping experience. As the pages are designated with AMP, they score higher in search engine rankings, helping improve your SEO efforts significantly.
- Responsive Themes: Similar to Magento, BigCommerce also offers responsive themes with the webpages automatically adapting to the device being used to access them. From the BigCommerce theme store you can directly check which themes are responsive and compatible with mobile devices. There are paid and free responsive themes available, and you can also build a free responsive theme if desired. All the webpages can have a similar theme and style, or you can experiment with unique designs for the home page, category pages and product pages. Images are automatically sized and optimised without having to create mobile-specific image variants.
- Mobile Commerce Integrations: Apart from the extensive range of built-in features offered by BigCommerce also has a dedicated App Marketplace available where additional features can be integrated into BigCommerce-based sites. All the apps are compatible with BigCommerce, and there are paid and free options. There are dedicated mobile commerce integrations available on the BigCommerce App Marketplace for everything from text marketing to mobile messaging, payment gateways and reporting and analytics. There are also apps available that can create mobile shopping apps for your BigCommerce store. With these apps, you can easily create a mobile app for your BigCommerce store that is compatible with Android and iOS.
BigCommerce is an excellent eCommerce platform available as a SaaS with monthly subscription plans based on business size. It supports a wide range of features and is easy to use, with optional additional capabilities that can be integrated through the App Marketplace. It is quick to setup and has great scalability, effectively expanding to suit growing business needs. BigCommerce offers an impressive mobile commerce solution that boasts of excellent performance and page speeds.
Conclusion
The massive potential of mobile commerce is undeniable and offering mobile shopping can significantly increase your brand visibility, sales, and overall success. As mobile device technology advances, more and more people spend extensive amounts of time on smartphones, tablets, iPads and other mobile devices. Setting up mobile commerce is an ideal way to supplement a growing eCommerce or offline business.
Based on your current business situation, plans for growth, and budget, you can consider launching a mobile optimised website, a dedicated mobile app, or both. Leading eCommerce platforms such as Magento and BigCommerce have excellent support for mobile commerce and offer dedicated features.
For a good quality mobile commerce offering, it is best to start with an eCommerce platform that can take care of the core eCommerce tasks. The eCommerce platform can provide you with a setup to display products, accept payments, manage orders, and organise shipping. As a digital agency, 18th Digitech is experienced in providing eCommerce solutions across diverse industries, with full capabilities for Magento and BigCommerce. Reach out to us to discuss your eCommerce needs.
