Today more than ever, Americans are using their phones to learn more about products, purchase good and browse the web in general. A recent study from ComScore found four in five smartphone users accessed retail content on their phones throughout the past year. This should serve as a wake-up call to small business owners to get their website optimized for mobile users.
Small business owners remain unprepared for mobile users
Making it easier for consumers to interact with a brand will give small business owners an opportunity to improve their bottom line. However, recent research released by digital media and commerce solutions provider vSplash, elicited 98 percent of small businesses still don’t have websites optimized for mobile users.
Ben Seslija, CEO of website optimization startup bMobilized, said his company’s service give small business owners the ability to quickly optimize their site for mobile users, so they can take advantage of the potential of ecommerce via mobile devices.
“These new do-it-yourself services eliminate the high cost and technological complexity that have historically prevented SMBs from building mobile sites that look and work great on any device, OS or browser,” said Seslija.
While mobile-optimized sites are becoming a near necessity for small business owners, they should still make sure they have part of their budget set aside for cyberliability insurance in case problems arise with mobile transactions.
Smartphones and tablets playing a larger role in consumer behavior
Consumer spending is expected to kick back up this holiday season after several months of remaining stagnant. Another study put together by Javelin Strategy and Research found consumer spent roughly $21 billion while shopping on their mobile devices, with approximately $5 billion of these mobile purchases coming from tablet users. The research firm also expected the number of tablet users to more than double by 2014.
The holiday season is certainly a time when purchases with smartphones and tablets will grow, but mobile users are also using their technology to search for local dining options at all times of the year. A recently released from the xAd/Telemtrics Mobile Path to Purchase Study 2012 found more than 8 out of 10 mobile users will visit a restaurant after searching for it on their mobile devices.
