Smartphones are handy to explore the catalog, and easy-to-download mobile apps make shopping a fun activity. Isn’t it amazing that you can search for your favorite products from anywhere and at any time? You can change your devices and still start on any of the mentioned devices with account sync options.
You can use social sharing options to share, discuss, and shop with your buddies, even when you are miles apart. M-commerce accelerated the growth of ecommerce businesses using easy-to-use mobile features.
Like the two sides of a coin, there are positive and negative impacts of everything. Similar is the case with m-commerce. Further, in this article, we will discuss the advantages and disadvantages of mobile commerce for ecommerce businesses.
Pros of Mobile Commerce
Wider reach
GSMA Intelligence reveals that there are 5.15 billion unique smartphone users across the World. The score grew by 121 million in the World in the previous 12 months & now almost 66% of the population is using smartphones. You can see a wealthy opportunity to reach your potential customers. The affordable and accessible availability of smartphones keeps increasing the count of smartphone users. With the help of these smart devices and the aid of trending technologies, you can connect with your not-so-tech-friendly audience, which was initially impossible only with ecommerce.
Stay open 24*7
Each of your customers is unique in their choices, preferences, and even search patterns. You might find some of them exploring the products while traveling; others like to do it as a leisure activity somewhere in mid-day or late at night. Those of your users who have long days working at the office won’t like spending hours on shopping. Mobile commerce is the savior to all such users of your mobile app and visitors at your online store. The responsive UI and trouble-free navigation can let your customers explore and shop the products of their choice anytime and from anywhere. Also, it let you stay open and serve customers round-the-clock.
Leverage marketing benefits
Isn’t a mobile phone the first thing you start your day with and the last thing you see at night? We know it’s the same for the majority of us. These smart devices have changed our habits a lot and believe it or not, it’s helpful for your digital store. On average, people spend 15 minutes to 3 hours daily on their mobile devices. This implies that you share a lot of information with these devices that even your beloved never know. For your ecommerce business, you can track the user activity with your mobile apps and online stores. The insightful information that you acquire through these platforms can be analyzed in detail to create marketing strategies. This data will give you a better understanding of your target audience and help you personalize the customer experience.
When you dive deeper to gain the knowledge, you will feel that’s totally normal, but it is not easy with the traditional brick and mortar stores. It takes years to build authenticity in the market, and increase the reach across states, let the country be left alone. On a larger canvas, m-commerce plays a vital role in attaining customer-level personalization.
Straightforward scaling
Managing a business is like climbing a mountain or performing a hurdle race. You can’t be a renowned brand of your target industry in one go; you will step on different stones to attain your set goals. But, it won’t happen like ones and for all. With every milestone, you will be setting a new goal. It can be like adding new product variants, product categories, jumping between business models, or adding warehouses.
Scaling your business cost so much for traditional stores. Ecommerce and m-commerce help you gain an understanding of the market trend and scale the capabilities of your web store rather than buying and furnishing physical locations. Your business is on the web, and you are opening options for millions out there. With the targeted marketing campaigns, it is easier for you to reach your potential buyers than the general audience. This will boost the ROI of your campaigns and minimize the budget of promotions.
Multiple payment options
The numerous payment options like credit card/debit card payment, net banking, UPI, and even the digital wallets let customers choose their preferred payment mode. The advanced authentication features like biometric scans make online payment much more secure in m-commerce than ecommerce. In addition to security, customers can claim extra benefits of loyalty points and discount coupons of these third party service providers and payment gateways. With extra waivers, customers are more motivated to shop.
Cons of Mobile Commerce
Needs strong internet connectivity
You are selling online, and to shop through your store, your customers need to stay connected with the Internet. In developing countries, the Internet is not that easily accessible, especially in remote areas. Not every customer will be surfing through your website using high-speed WiFi connections. Even if you keep your website well optimized, it may take more time to load on slow Internet for some users. Such an incident can make you lose some of your valuable customers, and there is really no option to keep them. Since mobile apps have almost negligible load time, mobile commerce can be helpful upto a certain extent. Still, it won’t be able to guard you fully.
Technology dependency
Like the physical store in the traditional market, your web store and mobile app are in the digital market. You will not be able to do well with your business if there comes any problem with these entities, which sadly brings our dependency on technology. All the web hosting sites talk about 99.99% of up-time, which mostly goes for 95%. There is always this risk of 5% downtime, which can happen in the main season. Even if it isn’t an issue on the server-side, there can be certain issues while placing an order from your store, and it can take a few hours to days to fix. We know that’s a grimming scenario, but if you know possibilities in advance, you will create backup options in advance.
Lacks personal touch
Its been ages practicing traditional commerce, and we are habitual of it that way. Going shopping has always been an activity, and it is known to build connections and grow your network. So, it is definitely not easy for anyone to come out of that shell and accepts m-commerce as the only option to shop online. It is impossible to touch and feel the product for the quality check when you are buying online. Businesses are trying their best to fill this void. The advanced technologies like virtual reality help you see the product like the real, but that’s not accessible to all businesses in the market. So, whether you talk about ecommerce or m-commerce, online shopping lacks that personal touch.
Security
Even when your transactions through mobile commerce are more secure, there are chances of hackers attack on your store and mobile app. There is a risk of losing a lot of information to unauthorized users. At least for now, there are no security patches that guarantee you 100% security against malicious attacks.
You can clearly see the positives of m-commerce are over-powering negatives, and technology will resolve these issues in the future. Unleash the power of m-commerce by designing your mobile app with Builderfly platform. Don’t worry about technicalities; our DIY mobile builder will help you customize and make your mobile app ready to launch. To try now, register yourself for free, and for more information, feel free to share your concerns at support@builderfly.com.
