BII MOBILE INSIGHTS: How Mobile Devices Will Shake Up E-Commerce

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Look Where Mobile Is Going To Find The Key To Social (eMarketer and Memeburn)
According an eMarketer study, CEOs agree that social media definitely has its place in the future of the industry; but it is more the technologies which social media platforms are migrating to that is going to be the biggest influencer.

impact of technologies

40% state that social media is going to be pivotal. This in itself is quite interesting; but when you combine this with the increase in content consumption responses:

biggest drivers of growth

These CEOs are effectively saying that the social media networks that their audience partake in are not the platforms on which they consume their content.

Social media is there to connect with audiences, build their audiences and build their brand. Mobile has proliferated every free second we have, social media being one of the bits of content we happen to consume on our phones and tablets, but it is by no means the only thing. Do not just post to Facebook and Twitter and hope that it reaches your audience. Chances are that a small sliver of your audience will see it; but more importantly ensure that your entire arsenal of online marketing weaponry is mobile ready.

How Mobile Devices Will Shake Up The E-commerce Business (Forbes)
The average e-tailer has done next to nothing to optimize for mobile. Yet, over the next 18–36 months, mobile will comprise more than 50% of all e-commerce shopping sessions, becoming the primary way people shop online. So what do e-tailers need to do to harness the opportunity of the tectonic shift to mobile instead of being swept away by it?

Provide a better mobile shopping experience
Merchandise for mobile
Make mobile purchases seamless
Make mobile devices work for you

In addition to this, e-commerce companies should be looking to make mobile as much a part of their core competency for the next ten years as online user experience was for the last ten years.

Why Brands Need Separate Strategies For Smartphones And Tablet (Econsultancy)
When marketers talk about e-commerce and digital marketing, tablets and smartphones often get grouped together within the mobile category. In reality the typical browsing and buying habits of a smartphone user are quite distinct from an average tablet user. The potential value of tablet users mean that businesses need to adopt an entirely separate strategy for the device. One of the key challenges is working out which devices customers had used at each stage of the purchase journey. Customers who use both a desktop and smartphone during their purchase journey convert at 10x the level of desktop-only customers. When a customer uses a desktop and a tablet the conversion rate is 12x higher, and when all three devices are used the conversion rate is 15x higher.

What Every CIO Needs To Know About Managing A Mobile Workforce (Technology In Business)
The Mobile workforce is becoming an important part of business today. Having a Mobile workforce enables business to be more flexible and productive. The key is to make it as easy to work remotely as it is in the office. There are various options Including:

A fixed mobile solution
An office communications server

Every CIO needs to Manage an efficient secure and reliable communications infrastructure, including the tools (hardware and software) and the connectivity (the call and data plans) as well as security of all that data.

Mobile Phones And Tablets Now Account For 1 In 8 U.S. Internet Page Views (comScore)
The wide adoption of smartphones and rapid uptake of tablets are drastically shifting how Americans consume content online. According to comScore, mobile phones and tablets accounted for a combined 13.3% of total Internet page views in August, nearly doubling their share of traffic in just one year. Mobile phones drove 9% of page views during the month, while tablets accounted for nearly half of that at 4.3% share. PCs continued to be the dominate source of online consumption driving 86.7% of all page views in August, but have seen their share of total consumption decline 6.4% in the past year as consumers are turning to a growing number of devices to stay connected.

Consumer Trends Show Mobile Tipping Point Is Here (Pew Research via Tim Peter)
More stats coming from The Pew Internet & American Life Project:

85% of American adults have a cell phone
45% of American adults have a smartphone
18% have a tablet (though at least one source claims that’s climbed to 22%)
18% of an e-book reader

gadget ownership over time

Mobile is now very, very, very mainstream. Not that this is big news. The question remains, as you prepare for 2013?

Why M-Dot Websites Are Dead Ends (Mobify)
Websites should have one unified URL for a given piece of content for all devices: desktop, mobile, tablet and anything new that arrives in the future. M-dot websites, therefore, come at a cost.