3 Ways to Succeed With Mobile Commerce
The ecommerce landscape is constantly evolving, largely due to technology innovation and changing shopping behaviors. As a business owner, it is difficult to keep informed while prioritizing your day -to-day business needs. It could be deciding on a new point of sale or website design, or implementing Artificial Intelligence or Virtual Reality.
Even mainstream technology – mobile – can be complex. Mobile allows shoppers to engage with retailers. Yet, purchasing on mobile lags significantly behind desktop. In fact, mobile devices account for 62% of web traffic, but only 23% of sales(1).
This was the prevailing theme of PayPal’s presence at Magento Imagine 2018. This year we focused on:
- Money: beyond the transaction – PayPal’s Vice President of Next Gen Commerce, Bill Scott spoke at the general session about this idea of creating experiences and stories for consumers. This session highlighted the popularity of services such as WeChat in China and Venmo in the United States as two key examples of how the exchange of money has evolved from a payment transaction to a social experience. This social experience allows the merchant to become part of “the story,” helping create a stronger merchant/consumer relationship, with the potential to create more brand loyalty.
- Mobile, Millennials and Payments Best Practices – At a breakfast for Magento’s global solution partners and agencies, agency panelists discussed the challenges and opportunities merchants face from the continued growth of mobile shoppers and impacts their merchants are seeing from the rise of millennial generation. Some insights to consider include:
- In emerging markets, mobile penetration is so high that “mobile-first” is no longer an option. Some are taking a “mobile-only” approach to building shopping experiences.
- Millennial shoppers are driven less by consumption and more by experience and emotional connection to a brand's lifestyle.
- B2B buyers are increasingly millennials as they are now the largest generation in the workforce.2
- Millennials expect similar shopping experiences across B2C and B2B and from desktop to mobile.
- Increasing Mobile Conversion – This is a critical discussion among businesses operating in a mobile environment. A recent comScore study found that checkout conversion with PayPal Checkout3 88.7% on average -- 82% better than a checkout without PayPal (including other digital wallets and cards) and 60% better than other digital wallets but this is still a critical area for merchants as it fundamentally impacts their bottom line.
As the e-commerce landscape continues to evolve and become more competitive, businesses need to follow suit. Shoppers are seeking a seamless purchasing experience and wide range of payment options, while businesses need to deliver a more customized experience for potential shoppers – especially the millennial generation. They need one seamless integration for every way to pay is needed.
1 comScore Media Metrix Multi-Platform and e-Commerce/m-Commerce Measurement, Q3 2017.
2 Pew Research Center, 2018; Millennials are the largest generation in the U.S. labor force
3 comScore online panel, Q4 2017. Analyzed shopping behavior at 20 large merchant sites across categories, utilizing its 1 million US consumer panel. PayPal Checkout includes PayPal Express Checkout, PayPal One Touch and the PayPal Mark. Checkout conversion is measured from the point when a consumer selects a payment type to completion of purchase within the same browsing session.
Rachel Campagnolo, Partner Growth Manager, PayPal