Why is mobile commerce vital for your business success?

The way we organise our lives has undergone a transformation in recent years and the COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated that pace even further. We’ve learned that we don’t necessarily have to put in eight hours every day in our office. Neither do we have to go to the stores to buy food, clothes or anything else we need. There’s less need to carry physical cash around. Today’s mobile-driven landscape is rapidly changing so much of what we know and we are increasingly turning to our electronic devices to work, shop, pay our bills – and be entertained.

What is mobile commerce?

Just as desktop computers and laptops led to eCommerce (electronic commerce), allowing us to buy and sell online, the next logical step in the digital evolution will be mobile commerce – also known as mCommerce – where we can purchase our desired products and more through our handheld devices, such as a smartphone or tablet while on the move. MCommerce is a subsidiary of eCommerce – and it’s growing fast. In fact, 72.9% of all retail eCommerce is expected to be generated through mCommerce in 2021 – that’s a 14% leap since 2017.¹ As one of the earliest digital payment systems, PayPal was also at the forefront of making online payments available to mCommerce.² Asia Pacific is one of the fastest-growing regions for mobile use, with 2.8 billion mobile subscribers in 2019 – 66 percent of the population – representing more than half of the total global subscribers. By 2025, the region is expected to account for about half of new subscribers globally.³ Equally importantly, governments around the world are supporting the move towards mobile technology as they recognise its potential for economic development.⁴

mCommerce is therefore increasingly a part of everyday life and the applications of mobile commerce encompass several business sectors including the financial, telecommunications, information service and retail industries, which together shape a large part of our lives. Not only do we receive our news, traffic reports, weather and sports results online, but we do our banking, pay our bills, order concert tickets – and, of course, shop, on different types of mobile platforms. Our tiny phones offer an entrance into a massive market and one that’s rapidly expanding. In many ways, mCommerce offers users the opportunity to carry out their daily business on the go, and the mobile apps that facilitate this can also provide an easier way to shop or carry out other financial transactions. They often offer a more focused user experience than a typical website, which can be more wide-ranging, bringing with them more visual clutter and more time-consuming ways of getting down to business.^5,6

The advantages of mCommerce

The obvious, immediate advantage of mCommerce for business users is the vast and growing number of potential clients. But there are more specific benefits than that and a carefully constructed mCommerce business can target exactly the type of customers it seeks. Here are some examples of the benefits mCommerce brings and how it can facilitate your business operation:

• Simplicity: customers can use mobile applications to go straight to their preferred online stores, hence simplifying and speeding up the shopping process, while making it easier for you to retain them.
• Convenience: a complicated user interface can put potential customers off. Mobile apps are geared towards making buying and selling possible with the minimum number of clicks.
• Reduced costs: mCommerce allows you to make a direct connection with your customer. Communicating with them personally can save costs on less focused marketing.
• Speed: mobile applications are usually faster than traditional websites, wasting less time.
• Gaining new customers: it’s possible to target visitors to your site with advertisements, keeping your brand in their consciousness even if they don’t buy the first time around.
• Data analytics: depending on your needs – and your budget – an array of sophisticated analytics tools can more easily be incorporated into mCommerce. These tools provide you with valuable consumer information, from customer contact details to their buying history and shopping behaviour, allowing your marketing to be significantly more sophisticated and precise.
• Payment flexibility: mCommerce offers a variety of convenient ways for your customers to pay, including a wide selection of mobile wallets and contactless mobile payments. The types of mobile payment options available, of course, will vary from market to market.⁷

So, for the savvy businessperson, the question is not whether to make mCommerce a part of their business operations, but how to integrate the best mCommerce solution for the needs of their company – and how soon. Here’s how PayPal can smooth the way on the road to success.

Let’s checkout with PayPal

PayPal Checkout benefits millions of people globally with an easy-to-use system that allows you to accept debit and credit cards, PayPal and some dozen other payment methods in more than 100 currencies around the world.

A feature that accelerates the checkout process is its Smart Payment Buttons, which intelligently present customers with the most relevant payment methods automatically, subject to consumer credit approval. With PayPal Checkout, your customers can complete transactions in just a few steps, using their shipping and billing information already stored securely at PayPal so they don’t have to re-enter it on your site. So if, for example, a customer is shopping from their mobile device and PayPal recognises them as a user of a major credit card company, like Mastercard for instance, then the Mastercard payment option will appear on their device. This convenience encourages them to complete their purchases and helps to boost your checkout conversion.

When customers pay you, the money usually appears in your PayPal Business account within minutes. You can then use your balance to send money, spend it online or transfer the funds to your bank account.⁸

Set up your PayPal Checkout simply by clicking here.