Mobile commerce is taking off. What's your strategy?

A few years ago, the notion of getting 5% of your orders from mobile devices was unthinkable. But today, some companies are getting that distinguished, if not more, as reported by many presenters at the current Internet Retailer Conference and Exhibition (IRCE)  held in mid-June 2011 in San Diego. Mobile devices are swiftly becoming a critical factor for companies, and the ones who come by it already have business development and marketing teams in residence focused strictly on mobile.

Let's notice at some numbers. According to Gigaom.com, PayPal is expected to do $3 billion in mobile payments in 2011. In March 2011, objective three months ago, that prediction was $2 billion. PayPal processes $10 million a day in mobile transactions, compared to $6 million a day in March 2011. Mobile is growing, and it is growing posthaste.

But, the majority of companies serene are not in the mobile site. At a LifePics view presented to an audience of online retailer executives at IRCE 2011, 77% indicated their company did not have an iPhone app, and a whopping 97% did not have a Windows Phone 7 app. 84% of the audience did not have an Android app either, but 13% planned to release one within the next year.

So, mobile is clearly relevant, as indicated by the PayPal mobile transaction data, but the bulk of companies peaceful are not in the game. If you travel expeditiously, you can beat your competition to this unique revenue stream that is swiftly gaining momentum.

Businesses can exercise a number of mobile strategies to drive revenue from mobile devices. The two main strategies most companies focus on are mobile sites and mobile apps. Which is more principal?  According to experts at IRCE 2011, the short acknowledge is, "both," and the slightly longer acknowledge is, "it depends on your industry."

Let's launch with apps. Most companies should have an app at this point, or should be thinking seriously about developing and releasing an app this year. The top two platforms are iPhone and Android. People can argue all day about which is more significant, but neither are going away anytime soon, so earn apps for both. Apps do a number of things for your business. If you provide the technology, they allow users to situation orders and drive business to your company, no matter where the user is at the time. Apps also sustain your trace top-of-mind for consumers and set trusting relationships with customers. Your impress is always in their pocket when they have your app installed.

Mobile sites are typically less sportive than apps, but they unexcited allow consumers to connect to your company from anywhere to rob action, whether it is placing an order, sending an inquiry, or objective browsing products and information for a future transaction.

Also, PayPal isn't the only option in this site in terms of mobile transactions. You can integrate a PayPal checkout option if you want, or exercise other providers like Google Checkout. Or, you can let people browse products or services via mobile apps or sites, and add items to a cart or notice them for later viewing. Then, people can advance relieve to your position on a computer and complete the order. You can also let people spot orders on mobile devices and let them pay for the order when they bewitch it up, which drives both orders and foot traffic.

Apps and mobile sites need to construct things easy and convenient for users. For example, our company, LifePics, released apps on all three major mobile platforms this year: iPhone/iPad, Android, and Windows Phone 7. The apps allow users to win photos and order prints to any of about 15,000 stores in our network, and seize up the prints in an hour. Before these apps, people on the go did not have an easy scheme to capture and print photos without having to fire up a laptop, upload photos, and state an order. Now, they don’t even need a camera or a computer; they objective exercise their phone. judge about how you can beget your customers' lives easier, and execute your mobile sites and apps with those ideas in mind. If you can give users a cramped more convenience in their daily lives, and give them a fun experience in the processFree Reprint Articles, you will be rewarded with higher order volume via mobile devices.