How to Prepare for the Future of Mobile Commerce

With Cyber Monday sales hitting a record $3.39 billion during the 2016 holiday season, it’s clear online shopping is now the norm for today’s consumers. But how much of today’s online sales are due to mobile habits? A lot.

Episerver’s latest report, State of Digital Commerce, revealed that 35 percent of consumers use their smartphones to buy merchandise such as clothing, electronics and home furnishings at least once a month, and more than one in 10 do so every week. As consumers increasingly turn to their phones over desktop or in-store experiences, here are a few ways to stay on top of upcoming changes revealed by the report:

Industry experts have touted mobile apps as a must-have for retailers over the past several years, regardless of whether they made sense for a brand’s audience. While it’s true that mobile app users tend to be the most loyal, this represents only a small portion of a retailer’s customer base. Most shoppers will never download retail apps. Instead, they would rather use a streamlined mobile website that eliminates the need to download apps for each store they might visit.