The mobile shopping experience still does not meet the expectations of most U.S. consumers. As the following Retail Dive article reports, most mobile shoppers abandon their sales orders prior to completing the payment.
About 50% of consumers frequently use their mobile devices to shop, but only 20% complete the transactions on their phones, according to a new whitepaper from Braintree, a payments company owned by PayPal. A 100-millisecond delay in load time can decrease conversion rates by 7%.
Digital commerce has brought dramatic change. Retailers can pinpoint consumer preferences, engage across multiple channels, while expanding into new markets. The payment process is where it all comes together and where shoppers are most likely to walk away if the experience is not seamless. As a result, retailers must consider making payments a top priority.
Mobile devices are the key to understanding where payments are headed, and how they need to be fine-tuned. This is happening now as 58% of consumers use their phones to browse e-commerce apps or websites, and 38% do so at least once a week, according to Braintree. It is even more important for the future as 85% of younger consumers, especially those 25 to 34 years old, are more engaged with their phones while shopping, and 85% of them use their mobile devices to browse the Internet, reported Braintree.
Unfortunately, mobile phones do not have enough screen space, plus keyboard navigation can often be difficult. Putting these two characteristics together creates challenges for app developers trying to build e-commerce websites that are conducive to easy product browsing and streamlined checkout. Most omnichannel merchants know we’re not quite there yet, and the data shows how many customers exit the sale before completion. Fortunately, there is light at the end of the tunnel as both merchants and customers alike are discovering the benefits of the one-click pay process, which are increasingly available on many mobile apps.
Overview by Raymond Pucci, Associate Director, Research Services at Mercator Advisory Group