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According to expert projections, mobile commerce will contribute most of retail e-commerce revenue (63%) in 2024. This trend is being propelled by catalysts like AI chatbots that enhance customer service and more interactive shoppable content.
You need to be agile and adapt quickly as mobile commerce trends change if you want to remain profitable. The focus should be on providing a seamless mobile shopping experience.
In this guide, we’ll highlight how to address new user demands and stay competitive through methods like hyper-personalized push notifications. We also discuss the challenges you might encounter while implementing the top trends and how to solve them.
The Mobile E-Commerce Landscape in 2024
Mobile phones allow users to shop from anywhere. This is one of the primary reasons that mobile users drive the most traffic to most websites these days.
This change necessitated that mobile-friendliness became a primary focus for ecommerce websites. Your website is now expected to improve convenience, security, and personalization to stay relevant to fast shoppers.
M-commerce no longer involves only simple SMS-based buying. Complex ecosystems infuse apps, social media, and various technologies to streamline marketing and appeal to consumers.
Prudent marketers use techniques like AI algorithms to understand user behaviors and facilitate personalized mobile shopping experiences. With that data, it becomes easy to identify issues within the purchase funnel and solve them. For instance, they can integrate payment options like one-click and mobile wallets to enhance inclusivity.
Responsive web designs are also no longer an extra feature, but a requirement.
Social commerce has also transformed mobile phones into powerful retail hubs by allowing purchases within social apps.
Furthermore, increased security features like biometric recognition and multi-factor authentication have become commonplace to allow for secure transactions.
10 Mobile Commerce Trends And How To Navigate Them
Changes in AI and personalization, voice commerce, social commerce, and more are all driving the growth of mobile commerce.
Here are the top trends you should leverage to stay competitive:
1. Mobile Wallets and Contactless Payments
A study by Statista shows that consumers used digital wallets for 50% of transactions in 2023. The trend continues to rise, with 2027 projections giving it a 61% market share.
This is because of a higher demand for convenience and security, increased smartphone penetration, and increasing number of eCommerce transactions. You can leverage this trend by providing all popular mobile wallet payments and crypto options to ensure ease of purchasing.
Statista also noted that mobile wallets are growing in popularity because:
- The need to cater to the unbanked populations in Asia-Pacific, who use this mode the most, at roughly 70% of all their transactions.
- The ease of use with minimal transaction charges: these cause many experts to speculate that they may replace cards and cash.
In other words, there’s a rising demand for fintech-driven wallets to ensure customer convenience and make purchases available to more users.
Likewise, Statista estimates that cryptocurrency payments have a 17% compound annual growth rate between 2022 and 2029. A study by CoinLedger also shows that retail and eCommerce are the sectors that offer crypto payments the most, at 19%.
More marketers are now including crypto wallets like Bitcoin and Ethereum in 2024 using third-party aggregators like BitPay, which converts crypto to US$.
Increased crypto adoption aims to widen customer reach and make purchases appealing to customers because of fewer transactional charges.
2. Augmented Reality (AR) and Virtual Reality (VR)
Many leading ecommerce stores are now using simulations, overlays, and virtual try-ons, among other AR and VR features. You should too. These features allow you to personalize offers better, provide immersive shopping experiences, reassure customers, and encourage more sales.
NielsenIQ’s report shows that AR makes 56% of consumers more confident about your products. Also, 61% of users prefer shopping with businesses that offer AR experiences.
Statista also estimates that AR and VR will generate US$40.4 billion in 2024. With a growth rate of 8.97% annually, they should bring in US$62.0 billion in 2029.
VR simulations and AR overlays also engage customers in life-like experiences. For instance, IKEA Place uses its AI-powered app to give consumers a lifelike visualization of furniture placements in their spaces.
You can bring purchasing experiences from anywhere to life with virtual try-ons and product demos. An example is L’Oréal’s “Magic Mirror,” which allows customers to picture themselves in different makeup using true-to-life facial overlays.
AR and VR can also be used to provide context-aware, hyper-personalized shopping. For instance, Alibaba’s and Amazon’s AR-powered recommendation engines improve user’s product discovery through personalized suggestions.
3. Voice Commerce
Statista estimated that the value of voice commerce in 2023 was around US$20 billion, four times the figure in 2021. In the US alone, consumers who shopped with voice technology between 2018 and 2021 increased by 120%.
The number of voice assistants also globally doubled between 2020 and 2024 to 8.4 billion.
This shift necessitates that you prioritize optimizing for voice search. Otherwise, your offers may not appear for such searches, potentially leading to lost selling opportunities.
But how do you do voice SEO?
Since voice search involves use of natural language patterns, try including more long-tail keywords and questions in your content. Also, provide audio descriptions to cater to consumers with disabilities and those who prefer hand-free searching.
4. Hyper-Personalized Push Notifications
More customers want tailored notifications. And for some, their absence may be a deal breaker. For these reasons, more businesses are improving their push notification personalization using AI.
AI integration simplifies the process of producing hyper-personalized push notifications as it can understand changing customer demands faster than humans. It can help you quickly analyze vast consumer data and deliver tailored messages targeting various segments.
Hyper-personalized push notifications also enhance user engagement and retention. For instance, using personalized push notifications:
- Landmark Group boosted subscriber retention by 65%, sales by 56%, and subscriber count by 35% in 28 days by personalizing.
- Beyond the Rack enhanced CTR by 20%, user spending by 26%, repeat visitors by 50% in three months, and user sessions by 72%.
5. Shoppable Content
E-commerce sites are finding innovative ways to leverage shoppable content to make the most of this fast-rising avenue. Shoppable content is defined as media assets that are directly linked into the ecommerce engine For example, clicking on an image within a digital experience which allows you to buy it, without having to go to the ecommerce site then product page, and adding it to cart.
Businesses now use various forms of shoppable content and find new channels to include it. Exhausting all opportunities to showcase your creative, shoppable content can help you achieve your ROI goals faster.
Sure, there were days when shoppable content only appeared on social media. In 2024, marketers are adding this digital content to their emails, partner sites, personal websites, and more.
According to The Bazaarvoice, 74% of customers expect your website to feature shoppable content.
Furthermore, there’s an increasing need for creative ways to display shoppable content rather than only static images linked to product pages.
For example, Oak Funitureland boosted conversions by 248% using user-generated content (UGC). Their customers found UGC more relatable as it showcases real-life experiences. They could see placements in customer homes and daily activities like children doing homework.
Additionally, platforms are adding new features to give marketers more opportunities for shoppable ads.
The recent introduction of shopping functionality to Instagram Reels allows you to integrate those with shoppable ads. This opportunity lets influencers tag your products, allowing you to make the most of such partnerships.
By establishing such opportunities, you can leverage more ways to show users your offers.
6. In-App Purchases
In-app purchases contributed $171 billion in 2023. Experts speculate they’ll reach $213 billion in 2024 and $515 billion in 2028.
One factor driving the revenue increase is new earning avenues through opportunities like live-streaming product demos and other events. During live streams, you can offer exclusive deals and virtual gifts for in-app purchases that may improve your conversions.
Furthermore, providing more ways to pay, like Coinbase Commerce and NowPayments, allows more users to buy from you. Blockchain-based payments also enable faster and more secure pay that’s convenient and promotes privacy.
User Experience and Security
These are two of the top reasons that determine whether users make in-app purchases. Plus, security ensures you don’t lose revenue due to fraud.
How can you boost in-app purchase user experience?
- Make it easy for users to understand your offers by including icon descriptions within the app.
- Improve in-app store designs by allowing quick side-to-side comparisons of supplementary products and services.
- Provide tutorials to make in-app purchases effortless for first-time users.
To secure in-app purchases:
- Employ server-side purchase verification.
- Detect and address void purchases using “server-to-server notifications.”
- Use anti-tampering solutions to make it harder for hackers.
Knowing how to adopt in-app purchases as a strategy might require that you adapt it to your business specifically. Consult with ecommerce experts to see how you can implement it meaningfully within your business.
7. Enhanced Customer Support with Chatbots and Voicebots
Due to advancements in machine learning, NLP, and AI, chatbots and voicebots are now able to have more intelligent and personalized conversations. These improvements help customers find solutions faster and save you valuable human resources that would normally go to customer service.
There was a 67% surge in chatbot adoption in 2024. Estimates indicate that 25% of businesses will use them by 2027.
Similarly, the number of voice bots will increase by an 18.6% compound annual growth rate to claim a $98.2 billion market share by 2027.
One of the best reasons to use Chatbots and voicebots is that they provide instant customer support in mobile commerce. They answer queries, recommend products, and assist with transactions. Due to their 24/7 availability, they allow you to address customer needs even while away, improving satisfaction.
Moreover, chatbots and voicebots handle queries faster and help you reduce the amount of human assistance you need. This may also lower operational expenses.
Also, using voice bots allows you to appeal to customers who prefer hands-free customer service.
8. Seamless Omnichannel Integration
Omnichannel customers are buying more than their single-channel counterparts. That is why many ecommerce businesses are leaning in towards this approach.
Retail expert Tyler Harris says, “The past couple of years have given us the time and the data to confirm that omnichannel customers shop 1.7 times more than single-channel shoppers.”
E-commerce sites now synchronize in-store, mobile, and online provisions to lower friction points. You’ll need to connect physical and digital channels using mobile to make purchases seamless and improve sales.
To secure these high-potential customers, provide options like same-day delivery, click-and-collect, and in-store mobile payments.
Here’s what you need to remember to implement this approach correctly:
- Maintain a consistent brand experience: Align your service, sales, and marketing strategies. Also, use similar content, tone of voice, and design elements across channels.
- Fix inventory management issues that result in overstocking and understocking: Use Warehouse Management Systems to manage your inventories.
- Synchronize data and systems: Use cloud-based solutions, data integration tools, and data governance frameworks to make data accessible across all channels.
9. Social Commerce
Social commerce is growing fast, and blockchain expert Kinjal Shah believes, “Social media is really just social commerce today.”
According to Statista, social commerce will contribute 21.7% of e-commerce revenue by 2028, up 16.2% in 10 years.
In other words, more customers are now discovering and purchasing products through social media. Some of these discoveries are through recommendations, where opinions from close connections are more valuable than celebrities and influencers. You can leverage social commerce and provide avenues for close interactions to boost product discovery.
That said, you can only continue growing your social commerce income by implementing suitable strategies.
Some key determinants of social commerce success in 2024 and ways to adapt include:
- Social media is the leading avenue for product discovery, especially for Gen Z at 72%. Use social shopping features like shoppable buttons, shopping tabs, AR, VR, and discover tabs to smoothen product discovery.
- Users value recommendations from close connections more than celebrities and influencers. So, use direct chats and virtual shopping parties to enable friends and family to share purchases.
- Most consumers consider the social shopping journey more efficient than traditional shopping. So, include your public profile online to allow more consumers to discover your brand organically.
10. Progressive Web Apps (PWAs) for Enhanced Experiences
PWAs are becoming more popular, thanks to an increase in the number of frameworks and libraries for their development. Also, advancements in browser compatibility with PWA features allow developers to make them more intuitive for shoppers. While the aim of using PWAs is to improve shopping experiences, considering these updates makes the process more seamless.
Emergen Research estimated that the PWA market will hit US$10.4 billion by 2027, following a 31.9% annual rise.
With adoption only increasing, leveraging top frameworks like AngularJS, React, and Vue is more important than ever. Building your PWA with the right ingredients ensures the least friction in the customer journey, reducing the need to check competitors.
An intuitive build allows for faster performance, which improves the likelihood of conversions. For example, Butcher of Blue improved page speed by 75% and conversions by 169% using Vue PWAs.
Some of the challenges you may encounter when implementing PWAs include:
- Difficulty integrating with your platform: Use solutions like Vue Storefront 2.0, which reduces integration time by having the core feature set ready.
- Poor web vitals scores: Use HTML and CSS minification, Content Delivery Network, and the right bundle-splitting strategy to have a small JavaScript file size.
- Poor SEO performance: These frameworks, if not implemented correctly, can be difficult for search engines to crawl and find all your content. An experienced ecommerce SEO agency will be able to help you ensure your site is optimized for search.
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