2016 is set to be an exciting year for eCommerce, as new and exciting trends continue to emerge and develop in response to consumer demands. Mobile shopping, once relegated to a niche market, is now a preferred shopping method for millions of customers across the globe.
Thanks to the development of faster, more powerful smartphones and tablets, consumers now have the freedom to shop from virtually anywhere, at anytime. Millennial shoppers – the largest and most valuable demographic – have spearheaded the revamping and improvement of the commerce landscape, a natural yet expected occurrence for a generation that is widely believed to be “glued to their phones.”
eCommerce is changing at a rapid pace, but if there’s one universal agreement amongst its experts, it’s that mobile shopping isn’t a trend with an expiration date. If you’re an aspiring entrepreneur seeking to tap into this competitive yet immensely profitable market, here are a few tips to keep in mind before launching your own mobile-friendly online store.
Choose the Right Shopping Cart
With numerous shopping cart solutions available, finding the right eCommerce platform to meet your business’s individual needs can be a daunting, time-consuming affair. In addition to pricing, everything from built-in features, third-party app selection, technical support, security, and uptime guarantee can vary significantly from one shopping cart to another.
To ensure your business isn’t inundated with a flood of additional costs, verify the platform you commit to is not only feature-rich and reliable, but mobile friendly, too. A cart that can help you market and capitalize on mobile shopping through features and offered services will improve your business’s likelihood of success and increase your overall profits.
Choose the Right Design
In addition to needing access to the industry’s latest tools and features, your website needs a stellar, captivating design that will immediately convert browsers into shoppers. A responsive design, which features technology that automatically resizes and adapts design elements and content to fit any device’s screen size, is critical to success in 2016.
Buttons that are hard to tap or illegible content that requires pesky zooming is a surefire way to guarantee cart abandonment. Customers need a smooth, flawless shopping experience, regardless of if they’re using a mobile device or a desktop computer.
Whether you opt for a pre-made theme through your shopping cart provider, use an in-house designer, or utilize the services of a third-party designer, ensure your website design not only looks awesome, but will deliver a memorable yet effortless experience from arrival to checkout.
Choose the Right Payment Method
Managing a mobile-friendly online store entails many components and facets, but few are as important as your implemented
payment gateway. eCommerce shoppers need a safe, easy solution for purchasing your goods, and using a reputable
payment solution can drastically reduce the occurrence of cart abandonment provoked by fear or uncertainty.
Utilizing a major payment solution such as
PayPal (powered by
Braintree) not only simplifies the payment integration process, but can provide your shoppers with much needed peace of mind. Mobile shoppers are amongst the most fraud-aware and concerned shoppers of today, and offering a secure, globally recognized payment solution can instill trust and confidence during the most crucial step of the checkout process.
Get Started
It’s a new year and a time to put your business resolution into action. Setting up, launching and managing a mobile-friendly online store is easy with access to the right tools. Aspiring entrepreneurs around the world are launching successful online stores everyday – make yourself among their numbers by investing in your future today.