Mobile-Commerce Web Design Tips for Reading PA and Beyond

Internet Retailer Conference, San Diego:

I recently attended the Internet Retailer Conference and Exhibition (IRCE) in San Diego, June 14-17, in search of the latest in m-commerce and other new technologies. I’m happy to report that there is good news for small and mid-sized businesses: the cost of creating a shopping site optimized for mobile shoppers has come down – way down! This is a great time for smaller businesses to take the leap because for the first time the technology is truly affordable even for very small operations.

Here are some online and mobile media trends that may surprise you:

1. Mobile internet access is expected to exceed traditional desktop access as early as 2014 (KalioMobile, June 2011, IRCE)
2. US mobile commerce sales doubled in 2010 to $3.4 billion, and are projected to account for 12% of global e-commerce by 2015 (ABI Research, per PayPal Merchant Services, IRCE – June 2011)
3. In 2010 PayPal processed $750 million in mobile payments in 2010, 4x the mobile payments of 2009 (IRCE, June 2011)
4. There were over 5 million PayPal mobile users in 2010, which is expected to double in 2011 (IRCE, June 2011)

Still not convinced? Check out these stats published by HubSpot and the Marketing Data Box, Q1, 2011:

1. Mobile Ads are expected to Increase 60% in 2011
2. Online ads reach 45% of US population (comScore, January 2011)
3. Ecommerce spending hit a record $43.4 billion in 2010 Q4 vs. $39 billion in 2009 Q4, up 11% despite the sluggish economy
4. ComScore predicts double-digit US e-commerce spending growth throughout 2011
5. Harris Interactive predicts US youth e-commerce spending to increase roughly 9% in 2011 to $123.5 billion (ages 8-21)
6. The online news audience was up 17% in 2010 over 2009, but every other medium was either stalled or down, according to Pew Research
7. For the first time, in 2010 more people reported getting their news online than from newspapers (Pew Research)
8. Online ad revenue now exceeds print ad revenue (online ad revenue is up 13.9%, vs. print down 6.4%)
9. 2010 saw an average 179 million US video online viewers per month, up 12% from 2009.

2011 is promising to represent a golden opportunity for nimble smaller businesses to overtake their larger peers in the mobile marketing arena if they act swiftly. Why? Because sophisticated shopping cart systems are more affordable than ever, and some include mobile cart optimization in the standard monthly fee! If you can’t bear the thought of converting your highly customized shopping cart to a standardized system just to get the benefits of mobile optimization, you can purchase a stand-alone mobile cart system for a monthly fee of approximately $100 and up depending on the number of unique monthly visitors.

For a quick sense of how effective shopping can be on a mobile device, go to www.Amazon.com from your iPhone, Droid, or other mobile device. Or, download the Amazon iPhone shopping app for an even better experience.

2011 will prove to be a great time for many firms to revise their web design strategy to include an optimized m-commerce shopping experience.