Mobile shopping: 5 trends to follow in 2019

There are many trends in mobile shopping that are shaking electronic commerce.
The boom in voice search purchases, the use of live chats and messaging applications or augmented reality will be decisive in 2019 and 2020.
Did you know that almost 8 out of 10 mobile users (79%) have made some kind of purchase through these devices?
In addition, 80% of them have made purchases from mobile phones in physical stores.
These data show the importance of the mobile consumer, who will go from less to more in the coming years. Do you want to take a look at the future of mobile commerce?
These mobile shopping trends will break with everything in 2019 and 2020. You buy by voice!

The boom in voice search is far from being a fashion.

On the contrary, they are one of the mCommerce trends with the best growth prospects. The adaptation of Google’s algorithms to this search modality has influenced significantly, as has the launch of Google Home, Alexa, HomePod and other intelligent loudspeakers.
For e-commerce stores, this is a unique opportunity to gain a competitive advantage over their commercial rivals.
There’s really no need to make a huge investment. Simply adapt existing content so that it has an optimal impact on mobile consumers. Let’s look at some good practices:

  • Question-answer type content, as a large part of voice searches, is done in the form of questions. For e-commerce stores, this means one thing: they need to improve their FAQs.
  • Long tail keywords, since local searches do not often ask ‘best online clothing stores’ but ‘which are the best online clothing stores?
  • Local SEO, as the phrases ‘near me’ or ‘near here’ are very popular in voice searches – this search mode cannot be missing in a local positioning strategy!

Today’s e-commerce stores that fall behind in voice search will be tomorrow’s losers.

Chatbots, live chats and messaging applications

Another of the mobile shopping trends that we observed in previous years is the use of chatbots and live chats in online stores.
The use of these systems will be added to WhatsApp, Messenger, and other messaging applications, which will also increase their importance in 2019.
Why? Because e-commerce stores need to improve their customer service and after-sales services. Email and mobile phones continue to be useful. But consumers, especially mobile consumers, demand closer communications with businesses.
As if that weren’t enough, new generations (such as millennials and post-millennials) are making intensive use of WhatsApp and other similar applications.
For e-commerce stores, moving where their customers move is a maxim that must always be respected. In other words, if your consumers go to the moon, your e-commerce should book a ticket on the next space trip.

Incentives to redirect them to physical stores

Are you suffering a leak of potential consumers because of showrooming? In other words, do your customers visit your physical premises, analyze your products, but buy them online?
Don’t be alarmed! Giants like Walmart, Flowers 1800 and other companies are dealing with this same problem in a simple way: they offer incentives to customers who finish their purchases in a physical store. For example, a user searches and finds the game console of their dreams in Walmart.
You’re probably thinking of buying that same model at Amazon, but then Walmart offers you a discount code if you shop at one of its physical branches.
How does this user respond? He buys his game console at the nearest Walmart store, and not only that: he also buys several gamepads and video games on offer.
AR to enrich traditional purchases
And if you’re still wondering what the trends in mobile shopping are, you should know that augmented reality is still very present among mobile users.
Although Pokémon GO and other augmented reality initiatives have fallen into oblivion, this technology has increased its usefulness in e-commerce.
IKEA, Magnolia, and other well-known e-commerce stores are taking advantage of augmented reality. In their campaigns, they show their consumers using mobile phones to get additional information about physical products.

Since most of the world’s population has a mobile phone and never leaves home without it, integrating it into the physical shopping experience is the most logical. And augmented reality makes it possible!

Bet on single-click payments

Does your e-commerce have a multi-step checkout process? Then you may want to bet on one-page designs.
Why should I change them? Because single-click payments are proving to have better conversion rates among mobile consumers.
You probably think shopping cart abandonment is a problem you can’t fight. In the case of mobile shopping, it can be effectively reduced with this type of checkout.
After the customer’s initial registration, there is no need to ask for information about their postal address or payment method. All this could be updated in your profile.
Therefore, when you make your second purchase, our e-commerce has all the information you need to accept and process this purchase.

The process should only take 3 clicks:

  • 1 click: add the item to the shopping cart.
  • 2 click: process shopping cart (click on the icon of the cart).
  • 3 click: in the checkout page, finalize the purchase after checking that the options (shipping address, payment method, etc.) are correct.

Mobile payments should be that simple!
In short, any of these mobile shopping trends will help you improve the performance of your e-commerce among mobile consumers.
Today more than ever, the use of tablets and smartphones is revolutionizing e-commerce. And your online store should be part of that revolution, don’t you agree?

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ECN Team
E-Commerce Nation is The 1st B2B Web Media about E-Commerce in Europe. The team of E-Commerce Explorers help businesses to reach new potential market through delivering useful content. Let us know in comment if you enjoyed this content.