Reaching the 21st Century consumer audience means extending contact points to the places where people go online. It’s not just about mobile-friendly online selling sites ranking better in search. More direct calls-to-action in the form of “buy” buttons and similar objects also figure in the plans of internet business.
Buyable Pins at Pinterest debut for US-based “Pinners” this summer. If a desirable Pin has a blue price, that will mean it’s buyable, right through one’s mobile. Users of iPhones and iPads will get first shot at buying through pins on their mobiles, with Pinterest fans on Androids and desktops seeing Buyable Pins at a later date.
Other forward-looking thinking came in the form of KPCB analyst Mary Meeker’s recent Internet Trends presentation. For those wondering about mobile phone adoption, research found 5.2 billion people using them globally, representing nearly three out of four people.
Advertising on mobiles versus desktops also demonstrated strong year over year growth for the 2009-2014 period. The implication suggests merchants will continue to chase mobile customers with ads as well as sites optimized for those mobile viewers.
“Buy” buttons represent what will be the most visible trends for mobile internet users browsing for services like travel as well as products. Google, Facebook, and Twitter will make separating shoppers from their credit card balances as easy and immediate as a click.
One other takeaway from the KPCB report shows the rising trend in user generated content – it’s not just internet companies, ecommerce sites, and online advertisers contributing to the expanding online environment. Regular people are having significant influence too.
Meeker revealed the growth of customer ratings and reviews by highlighting data from room-sharing site Airbnb, where travelers contributed 14 million new reviews over a 12 month period, a year over year rise of 140 percent.
On slide 120, Meeker shows that 9% of retail sales is through ecommerce. “Consumers’ expectation that they can get what they want with ease and speed will continue to rise,” she said.
She also noted how mobile innovations are changing payments processing for merchants, citing two examples: Square (“Allows merchants to accept credit card payments via their existing smartphone or table & run a sophisticated point of sale system”); and Stripe (“Can dramatically reduce payment integration time for developers and allow them to take advantage of modern APIs, compared with time required to deploy traditional merchant account”).
