Consumers Still Struggling with Mobile Commerce Applications

Mobile commerce has been growing in popularity amongst consumers in the past year. They are actively using smartphones and tablets to buy all kinds of items without having to actually visit a brick and mortar store. The results of a survey conducted by Harris Interactive show that businesses are losing money because their mobile sites are frustrating or confusing to consumers. 

The survey revealed that 84 percent of respondents stated they found mobile transactions challenging to complete. Another 25 percent of those surveyed said that they had trouble logging in to a mobile site.

I know that internet users have notoriously short attention spans, and they have no problem with abandoning a mobile commerce transaction if they perceive it as difficult or time-consuming. Once the customer has been lost, the business has an uphill battle to get that person to go back onto its web site. In most cases, I can see that the customer would move on to buy from a competitor.

If these kinds of issues are not enough of a concern for business owners, they also need to be aware of consumers’ concerns about fraud. Forrester Research has conducted a survey that has led to some very interesting results. A full 44 percent of respondents stated that they would be more likely to buy items through mobile devices if they were more confident about linking their credit card and banking information through them.