It’s 2012. The iPhone launched 5 years ago, and acted as the catalyst for aa smartphone revolution. Around 8,000,000 people in the UK use their smartphones to access the Internet every day*. Almost 50% of all mobile phones in the UK are smartphones (that’s around 23 million). £830million is being spent online in the UK, every week, and 20% of that is through mobile devices. It’s time to understand how the mobile web & mCommerce impacts your business.
As you consider your digital strategy for the next year, keep in mind that your users are increasingly looking for more customized, personalized interactions. At the very least, your website’s layout should display properly on their smartphone or tablet screen and, really, it should be easy to use whichever device they are viewing it on. This is where responsive design comes into play, with built-in support for multidevices in the most scalable and cost-effective way.
You can always go for an app of course, and there are times when an app might be the right choice for your business. But bear in mind that your app needs to be kept up to date, support all the main platforms (Android, Windows, Apple’s iOS, possibly legacy Blackberry as well as nascent ones like Blackberry 10 & Firefox OS) and you have to send people away from your purchase path to download an app, just so they can buy from you.
Talk to Narrative (previously THBOOM!) for more info about how Mobile commerce & Responsive Design might fit in your business’ online strategy.
*Source: comScore, September 2011