The year 2016 has witnessed mobile power like never before, and its only getting better. All most all E-commerce marketplaces have launched Lite’ m-sites, mobile & app shopping as India’s internet users base has increased by 49% and continues to rise in a dynamic fashion.
The age of internet enabled smart devices has taken over the sub-continent, there will be a handful of trends that will shape the mobile market in the year 2016. The foundation of these trends has been laid such that it will add to the power and growth of m-commerce immensely.
E-commerce companies have invested towards building data and technology. They have revamped their tools, invested in insightful data analytics, gathered a stronger tech team and reinvented their marketing style too. The idea behind such investment is to provide the users with a social, predictive and real-life shopping experience and finally move beyond offers and discounts. Features like image search, mall like shopping experience, try on delivery and more have given mobile shopping a personalized edge coupled with convenience.
The Indian mobile market is one of the most dynamic markets in the world. Indian buyers like to compare products and services at various levels before they zero down on the one they buy. Businesses will now need to balance technology along and trust to create a new and improved retail space for the users. To lead the retail space businesses need to have a strong presence in the online offline and mobile market. The mobile market is sure to soar new heights, with analytical data science personalizing shopping experience for users through the screens of their smartphones and store pickup options teamed with magic mirrors and interactive fitting rooms.
Customer value will filter the hyper local market. Mergers are bound to happen if there are 10 startups offering similar and/or complementing services or products (e.g. Grocery, home services) only a handful will manage to survive in a market as fierce as ours. Smaller players will be taken over by e-commerce giants to cut down on competition and strengthen local reach.
There are over 800 million non-english speaking literate Indians, who form more than 10% of the global population, yet there is only 0.02 percent of relevant content available for them over the web. When we compare this with the less than 100 million English speaking users, we find huge scope of business. There is immense scope of business growth if they pick the multi-lingual route. E-tailers like Snapdeal and Shopclues have launched a regional version of their sites. Year 2016 will mark the growth of m-commerce with an options of regional languages. The key is to go for localization not translation.
Marketing and advertising are the prime factors that determine the success of an app. If a great app or product is built on a very relevant and usable idea but it is not able to reach its target audience, its success is doubtful. Advertising revenue is an integral part of the e-commerce trade. Targeted marketing is fetching great revenues and profits for e-tailers. Retention, engagement and conversion will get priority over no. of installs. Data metrics have played an important role is marketing products and services to the right demographic, thus reinforcing engagement, retention and conversion. From 2016 onwards m-commerce will witness an era of personalized intelligent data user centric marketing derived through analytical expertise.
This article is contributed by Anand Jain, Co-founder Clevertap.
