In recent years, two of the biggest developments on the web have also revolutionized the daily lives of billions of people around the world: mobile phones and social networks…
It may sound surprising to you to address these two topics (social networks and mobile browsing) in a single article, but it actually makes perfect sense because the rise of social networks has largely been through the possibility that mobile may be somewhere else. Also attach to be connected, anytime.
So mobile has enabled social networks to support Internet users in their daily lives, wherever and whatever they are doing.
Arguably, these(r) developments in the use of the Internet have had a significant impact on the web industry as a whole, and on the development of e-commerce in particular.
In fact, now consumers will be more likely to shop in online stores not only when they are at home in front of their computers, but also through their smartphones at every moment of their day.
In this article we’ll tell you why what you already know is just the beginning, and why the future of your online store (and that of your competitors) will play out on social networks and mobile at large.
Growth of m-commerce in France
Every year you hear the same thing in every newscast: “Record year for online business”. but that’s not all.
Indeed, for all devices combined, 2016 forecasts for e-commerce sales show a 7% growth in France (from 64.9 to 70 billion euros). A good number, but who doesn’t know JT (and we do know!) is nothing compared to the increase in sales via mobile. So much so that this type of marketing vector has its own name and is called m-commerce to differentiate it from traditional e-commerce.
Thus, 2016 forecasts for online store sales via mobile and tablet (excluding application sales) suggest an increase of 30% to 40% (from 7 to about 10 billion euros) for France.
While mobile sales represent “only” about 10% of total transaction volume, such growth and current trends on the Internet suggest that this is only the beginning.
In fact, internet giants (and imagination-filled startups) are increasingly pushing online stores to be better optimized for mobile (like Google with the best of responsive sites or Twitter with Bootstrap).
Payment methods, which are still not suitable for mobile payments, are undergoing a revolution, with many startups entering this space, hoping to find the goose that will be the key to mobile payments in the future. will become the standard.
The development of mobile devices, improvements in mobile connections, the development of development technologies that make it possible to build more user-friendly sites on mobile are all indicators that suggest that this growth in m-commerce sales will not be successful. growing, and may even become a majority one day.
We are waiting for the forecast for 2017!
Profiles of users of social networks on mobile
As we mentioned above, the success of social networks and the role they play in our lives are closely linked to the advent of mobile browsing.
Not only a way to keep in touch with friends, social networks are now very much present in economic life, and have become fundamental in the communication strategies of all successful e-commerce sites.
As this article points out, a 2016 Mediametric study tells us that in 2016 almost 1 in 2 French people visited Facebook via a smartphone.
But also that 90% of 15-34 year olds and 80%+ of CSPs connect to social networks through their mobiles.
Two categories of users that are very interesting for an online store (one for its future potential, the other for its current purchasing power).
But more generally, the entire population has transitioned to mobile social network use (the most under-represented category is retirees, with 35% still connected to mobile social networks).
In addition to loyalty and customer relationships, social networks offer enormous potential to acquire new customers for online stores that integrate this component perfectly into their strategy.
Both through advertising (especially the spread of advertising on Facebook with extremely high-performance targeting), and through means specific to social networks, such as sharing by Internet users.
The latter is in a way the holy grail for e-merchants as it serves as a recommendation by the internet user to his “friends”.
This incredible potential of social networks, combined with their presence on mobile phones, makes it easy for you to understand that in order to benefit from this new customer, online stores must be fully optimized for mobile devices.
Again, this is just the beginning. There is probably an ambition to integrate as many e-commerce components as possible (to benefit from this spirit of e-commerce and m-commerce) into social networks.
Specification of an m-commerce site linked to a social network
Still “optional” a few years ago, responsive design for an online store is now an obligation it seems absurd not to fulfill. In addition, most online store creation tools (such as the French Prestashop and Wifio or the North American Shopify and WooCommerce) offer basic and no billing surplus responsive design and mobile payment methods.
And we’re not talking about a responsive aspect, which would suggest that the site is usable on mobile, but for which the functional aspect would not be 100% successful on mobile. An online store must be fully responsive from the landing page to the end of the payment process, and both in its layout and its communication elements, or in its call-to-action.
In the context of social networks, things are much less clear as they are less standardized and more likely to evolve. What is certain, however, is that social networks should interfere with your communication strategy at multiple levels of acquisition and retention.
There are many things to do in an online store (adding clearly visible share buttons, defining images to display when sharing, etc.) but most of the work will be done in the environment itself. social network.
After clearly identifying your goal outline, you will need to develop a marketing strategy to orient your publications, and develop it according to the results achieved.
On this topic, we recommend that you read this article, which will help you perfect this strategy.
(Source: FEVAD, Wifio)