Statistics show that more people own a mobile phone than a toothbrush.
What's more, according to research conducted by the American research centre "Pew Research Center", phones are the most frequently used device for online shopping.
This is confirmed by data from the 2018 holiday season, when iPhones and Androids overtook desktop computers and laptops. 1 in 5 Americans now uses only a phone to browse online content.
It follows that the shopping-telephone revolution is in full swing and its further development will bring significant changes to the market. Soon we will forget about credit cards and PIN codes; instead, we will pay at the till by scanning our face. We wrote about tests with a similar system in our article about AMAZON.
What lies behind this mobile revolution? Let's take a look at 6 trends in this technology.
1. Progressive Web Apps
1. Progressive Web Apps
This has been a hot topic since 2015, and these apps are already all around us. They aim to speed up how a website works on a phone, reducing loading time to under 2 seconds while maintaining user comfort. They also keep internet usage to a minimum and allow content to be personalised for each individual user of the app.
For now, only big players such as Starbucks or Tinder can afford such apps, but soon this solution will become more widespread.
2. Shopping in augmented reality
2. Shopping in augmented reality
We're talking here about the technology used by the popular mobile game "PokemonGO". IKEA has recently experimented with this technology too, where walking around the store and pointing your phone screen at, for example, a table, you could see tableware or various other additional items and products.
The technology is also slowly entering the fashion industry. The idea concerns a virtual fitting room.
Apps that help with interior design, virtual tape measures and so on have already existed on the market for a long time.
3. One-click payments
3. One-click payments
Why phones are the future of commerce - key trends
Why phones are the future of commerce - key trends
In September 2017, Amazon's patent for One-Click Payments expired. Many sellers were surely pleased about this. The technology is still being intensively refined, and online shopping is becoming ever simpler and faster.
Thanks to this, apps and websites can store data about our credit cards.
In the future, the introduction of Face-ID payments is on the horizon.
Generally, searching for a credit card will be a thing of the past; instead, we will smile at the camera in our phone.
4. Screenlessness
4. Screenlessness
In time, we may even give up traditional screens. Voice commands are becoming increasingly popular. It is much faster and more convenient. However, on the Polish market, for example, it encounters a language barrier.
In the future, we will be able to tell our car to check in our luggage for us on the way to the airport and choose a seat for us.
5. Universal mobile payments
5. Universal mobile payments
In China, cash payments are already something marginal. It is not easy to pay with cash there. The most popular app there, WeChat, already has more than 1,000,000,000 users, while its WeChat Pay service has 800,000,000 active users.
WeChat Pay works on the basis of scanned codes. In the West, there is still no single unified solution for mobile payments. Maybe scanned codes are the future? In any case, paying by phone is already becoming part of everyday life.
6. Contextual selling
Sellers are striving to remove any factors that delay shopping in their store. That is why, before long, every online moment will be shopping.
This means that if someone sends a friend a photo of a cool pair of sneakers on WhatsApp, a buy button will appear in the app.
There will be no need to ask about the brand or look for the store.
Development is heading towards a point where, when going to the cinema with friends, all you need to do is type information about the planned outing into a group chat to book tickets. Everything happens on one page, without redirects.
An example of a site that has started introducing something like this is Skyscanner, where we can buy flight tickets from various airlines without leaving Skyscanner's website.
Mobility is becoming the foundation of commerce. We spend the most time on our phones, and sellers want to be where their customers are. We always have our phone at hand, unlike a computer.
Summary
The article presents six trends that make phones the future of commerce: progressive web apps, shopping in augmented reality, one-click payments, screenlessness, universal mobile payments and contextual selling. It points out that iPhones and Androids have already overtaken computers in online shopping, and 1 in 5 Americans uses only a phone. An interesting fact is that in China the WeChat Pay app has 800 million active users, while in the West there is still no single standard for mobile payments.
