Mobile Trends That Affect Small Businesses

A study from AT&T shows how reliant small businesses have become on mobile technology. The 2013 AT&T Small Business Technology Poll mentions that 85 percent of small business employees now use a smartphone to help with their jobs. 

Customers are becoming more mobile too. The International Data Corporation, a global marketing intelligence firm, says the number of smartphones shipped now outpaces the number of other cell phones around the world. Tablets are on the increase with customers too.

Consider these mobile trends that affect small business:

Trend #1: BYOD – Bring your own device

BYOD or bring your own device is a trend that allows employees to use their Smartphones and tablets for business 24/7. According to recent surveys, the numbers of Smartphones sold outpaced the number of PCs. Maybe it's because the newest generation of Smartphones enables users to do everything their laptop does. Companies are utilizing BYOD as a way to increase productivity. For a small business owner, allowing your sales staff to BYOD will encourage them to use that device for all kinds of work-related tasks throughout the day. That's going to be very good for your business.

Trend #2: Mobile Shopping

In the U.S., Cyber Monday sales are quickly building towards outpacing the traditional top selling Black Friday sales and those are only two days out of the year! The vast majority of mobile tech users have made purchases through their phones and pads. It's not just the ease of one-click buying that customers appreciate but also the ability to shop and compare items right in the store. When your mobile application can make that shopping experience easy to navigate then you're going to build a stronger customer base. This means your website should be adapted for mobile phone use. Perhaps you should develop a separate app for your online store. At the very least there should be a lot of testing to work out the potential bugs. You might have only one shot at grabbing a mobile shopper, make sure your website is ready.

Trend #3: LTE – Long Term Evolution

Long Term Evolution networks or LTE are becoming all the rage for many Canadian businesses. These networks are allowing for all types of innovations like HD video conferences, transfer of large data files and hot spot access anywhere in the country. LTE networks allow businesses to make instant uploads across a variety of social media platforms. This insures a greater change of market penetration than ever before.

In the future, smartphones will continue to improve the way you experience the everyday world. Projection technology, for instance, is rapidly getting better, with some phones able to project pictures and high-definition video to a wall the same size of a 50-inch television screen.

Mobile payments using your phone will now become a hot trend, with many businesses vying to create the better “mousetrap”. Technology will always be evolving. With better streaming technology, faster processors, smartphones are becoming more powerful and will become much more integrated into our lives.

How Mobile is Driving e-Commerce in the Future

Back in the sixties, the popular sci-fi series "Star Trek" showed us the way with its handheld communicator. This device allowed crew members to talk with their shipmates at very long distances.

They were also able to use that same device to tap into the vast resources of their super computer. Flash ahead to today and that bit of fantasy has become a reality.

We all have the ability to carry a super computer in the palm of our hands. We can look up information, check out the weather, get directions, stay in touch with friends and go shopping. In fact, mobile technology is going to be a leading factor that will drive e-commerce to further successful heights in the coming year.

Here's why the mobile device is having an impact on e-commerce:

1      Multiple devices and platforms increase brand visibility

Each year cyber shopping is carving out a larger portion of the retail pie with no signs of it letting up. It's not just the cell phone that is driving e-commerce but also the pad or tablet device. With iPad leading the charge shoppers are happy to download apps from their favorite stores and sign up for Twitter promotions and special offers. For the online brand, this means developing a web portal that can cross over on many platforms. You shouldn't limit yourself to just one device and stay competitive.

 

       Easy access for the consumer at all times

A major benefit that mobile users enjoy is the instant access to ordering a product online. Mobile apps have improved so much that they are considered the best friends of today’s users. The apps that are preferred are those that make it easier to find products and services on your cellphone and purchase the products. Consumers can download apps which let them scan bar codes to find the best bargain. If it happens that your website is selling that item at a better price then a few clicks later could have you closing a sale.

      Rising mobile demand

As smartphones are becoming cheaper and more powerful, their adoption is rising. In the US alone, web-enabled smartphone purchases have 46% of the cellphone market. Thus, the market for e-commerce consumers via mobile platforms is ever expanding. With the expansion, there is a logical increase in the use of cellphones for e-commerce.  

Improvements in technology are helping businesses and customers shop and it's only going to get better. Case in point: The Shazam app. Once downloaded, you can activate Shazam to "tag" any song playing on the radio or TV. That song becomes part of a virtual shopping list that is tied directly to iTunes. Hear it, tag it, buy it.

The mobile shopping experience doesn't get any better than that!