According to several sources, including CNN Money, the PC isn’t as popular as it used to be, 6% less popular than last year, in fact. And while this may not seem like a large percentage, keep in mind that the average smartphone or tablet can do all or nearly all of the tasks that at one time, users depended on their PC’s to do.
What does this have to do with social, mobile, and tablet commerce? For one thing, while I’m not trying to say that you can’t engage in (or sell, or promote, or offer) social commerce via a PC-optimized only site, but the fact is that you’re going to run into some barriers when you try to reach mobile or tablet users with either one.
Smartphones and tablets mean that we don’t have to be tethered to a computer in order to buy stuff, check our email, update our Facebook status, bank and pay bills online, or even chat with our friends via an online messaging program.
Since it is convenient to update our Facebook statuses with our smartphones and tablets, many people do so, sharing data about their locations, their moods, and what they’ve purchased or are thinking about purchasing. This is where to social commerce aspect comes into play.
In other words, social commerce is convenient for tablet and mobile users. When they visit their favorite site’s Facebook page, and discover that they can buy their favorite products right there, and share their purchases with their friends at the same time, they’ll likely repeat this process the next time that they are making a purchasing via a tablet or smartphone.
One thing that I’ve heard storeowners say when asked if they plan on making a mobile version of their site is “what’s the point? You can go to my site with your smartphone or tablet, why do I need a separate site for that?”
The short answer is, mobile sites are formatted to work on mobile phones. The screen sizes, images, buttons, and overall site structures are designed with mobile users in mind. If you don’t think this is important, try visiting a few non-mobile sites with your smartphone and you’ll see what I mean.
If your site is mobile-optimized, your site is tablet-optimized. For the most part. When I launch the web browser on my tablet and go to a site, I am automatically directed to the mobile version of that site.
Unlike smartphones, tablets are designed with the visual experience in mind. They have larger screens, more vivid color display, and interactive touch screens. Knowing this, many forward thinking retailers have started making their product catalogues available online.
As an ecommerce retailers, are you planning to (or have you already) made the move into the social, mobile, and tablet commerce spaces? Feel free to leave a comment and let the Miva Merchant community know.