Mobile Consumers: Trends, Habits, & More
Mobile commerce is huge around the world, and it is predicted that it will become a 448 billion dollar industry by 2024. Smartphones and tablets are becoming more and more important to e-commerce and are poised to move to the forefront of the market.
Mobile devices have become an integral part of life for most people in the country, and for many, it would be impossible to function normally without them due to their importance in our social and professional lives.
With this huge component of the market continuing to grow exponentially, it is important to stay up to date with mobile consumers' latest trends and habits.
Mobile devices have evolved in massive ways over the past decade, and how we use them are completely different from what they used to be.
Luckily for you, we are able to observe the trends that exist and predict what direction mobile commerce is going in.
People are addicted to their phones
The first thing to understand is that phones are one of the most important devices in the world to the average person.
Younger people are especially attached to their mobile devices, with 60% of college students believing that they have a cell phone addiction and 44% of Americans saying they could not live without their phones.
Smartphones have only been popular for the last decade or so, and this has been a huge cultural change that has affected the entire country. Our relationship with smartphones has no parallel to older forms of technology, with landline phones and pre-smartphone cell phones having far fewer features to keep people glued to them.
In addition to this, the mobility of smartphones means that people are taking this addiction with them wherever they go.
The takeaway here is that mobile consumers are buying more and more, and mobile commerce is going nowhere any time soon. Cell phones will be at the center of e-commerce moving forward and will continue evolving.
The 5G Dream
4G technology isn’t fully accessible worldwide yet, but many are already predicting the potential impacts of 5G technology. By 2025, 4G is forecasted to make up 57% of the market, while 5G is forecasted to make up 21% of mobile technology.
However, in Asia and North America, 5G may make up more than half of the total connections. This means that a considerable portion of the world’s population will be working with 5G technology while another large portion is still working with 3G.
In some sectors of the world, internet connectivity will have completely evolved, changing the roles of cellular connectivity and wifi in our daily lives.
Connectivity will also increase around the world, and while not everyone will have 5G for a long time, the number of people connected to the internet will continue to grow. The more people who are connected, the more important it will be for companies to pay attention to mobile consumers.
Everyone in the world will be affected as the global network reachable through your phone or tablet gets larger and larger.
Evolved Mobile Shopping
Mobile devices have totally changed the way we approach e-commerce as a whole. Shopping is easier than ever since you not only don’t have to leave your home to buy things, but now you don’t even have to leave your bed.
Many retailers now use mobile apps that make it even easier for people to find their products. 57% of consumers utilize mobile apps, and 85% say they prefer mobile apps to mobile websites.
Apps also mean that people can register their personal data with a certain company, making one-click ordering possible.
Normally, a person ordering something online has to put in their credit card info, shipping address, and more before they can have a product sent to them.
With apps and one-click ordering, people can skip straight to buying things, which leads to significantly increased sales. On mobile sites, digital shopping carts are abandoned at a rate of 97%, while amazingly, that figure is cut down to 20%.
Companies have figured out how to get people to buy products at an increased rate and are cutting down on the barriers people have to buy things online.
As we move forward, retailers will continue to zero in on consumer behavior in ways that increase sales.
Changing security
As the needs of mobile consumers evolve, so do their security needs. Companies like Ad Hoc Labs work to provide consumers with options to conduct their business in a more secure and private way.
Their primary product is Burner, a service that allows you to create a second phone number that keeps your original number private and secure. An increase in mobile device users means an increase in cyber threats.
Having services that can help you retain anonymity and avoid sharing your data with too many parties cannot be taken for granted. Apps like Burner allow people to take action against cybercrimes and prioritize their own internet security.
It will become increasingly difficult to remain anonymous and keep your personal information private as more people get better connectivity, and so it is important to search for ways to preserve that.
Ad Hoc Labs also created Firewall, a service that automatically blocks unwanted calls and messages on your phone. Increases in mobile connectivity come with increased security risk, and Firewall allows you to build a network of trusted numbers that are “whitelisted” while unwanted callers are blocked from contacting you.
You need your phone for so many things in your day-to-day life, and you can’t just put it down, hoping you can wait out a security risk. People in the modern age need to be proactive in fighting these security risks and utilizing services that can protect their private information.
Companies will be pouring money into internet security in the near future, and staying updated on the highest level of security will be vital.
Conclusion
Mobile devices are at the center of our world, and people need their phones as much as any other device in their household. Phones are only going to become more important to the global marketplace moving forward, both as a product and as a platform for buying goods.
Because of their massive importance technologically and culturally, mobile consumers will change the way they do business in a lot of ways. Connectivity will increase worldwide, security services will transform, and shopping will take on a completely new face.
No one should expect mobile devices to lose their importance any time soon, and so the best thing to do is follow the trends of mobile consumers and prepare for the future.
Organizations that can adapt to the habits and needs of mobile consumers are the ones that will survive.
Visit Ad Hoc Labs now for more information on consumer habits and trends.
Sources:
Rise of M-Commerce: Mobile Shopping Stats & Trends in 2021 | Business Insider
Cell Phone Addiction | PsychGuides.com
Forecast 5G adoption by region 2025 | Statista
10 Mobile Commerce Trends That Will Dominate 2021 | Buildfire