eCommerce enterprises by default are assumed to have a web portal aimed specifically for their customers. There has been no alternate way for eCommerce enterprises to generate revenues. Although partner channels exist, they only extend the services to another web portal.

Recently from 2012 onwards, hand held devices have been on steriodical growth – processing power enabled by dual core processors, octa core processors, RAM capacity with minimum 1 GB, storage capacity minimally being 16GB and the camera resolutions being 12 MP.

It’s not just the processing power of handsets, it is also the availability of internet connectivity of these handhelds. The widely available 3g and 4g networks coupled with  data plans as less as 250/- per month for 1GB data consumption has spiralled the usage of mobile devices.

The hugely successful social media applications  Whatsapp, facebook, twitter etc have enticed consumers to move away from feature phones to smart phones. With smart phones being available from 5000/- INR onwards, it has become an easy decision for consumers to switch over to smartphones.

The openly available and highly documented APIs for developing mobile applications has enabled enterprises to develop and deploy mobile applications specific to their business model. Earlier mobile platforms like Symbian and windows CE had restricted functionality access.

Thus, availability of powerful handhelds coupled with cheaper data plans have affected Consumer Behaviour positively in trying out new mobile applications. Consumers no longer have to access eCommerce portals from their desktops/laptops. They can now access, browse eCommerce portals while travelling, while in movie theatres, while attending boring lectures/meetings and even while in washroom

Now comes the winning card for eCommerce enterprises, while installing these eCommerce mobile applications, the application asks for permissions to access call records, contacts, media on your phone. This data is pumped into eCommerce portals without the consumer knowing it even though he would have approved while installing. This data is considered as gold mine by marketing team as they now have the consumer details along with their friends email ID, phone numbers etc. The consumer vital details like gender, age, spend behaviour are important to target promotions by email, SMS or by social me posts. This data is not just about consumers but also includes the same information about their contacts (excluding the spend behaviour).

Mobile applications by design have restricted screen area to show content. eCommerce enterprises have capitalized on this to provide the maximum user experience with just few context specific clicks. Web portals by design have lost of content space, which triggers the age old question of what to show to consumers to entice. Moreover the IT infrastructure needed by mobile applications is cheaper and less complex than portals. Unlike portal access, mobile applications are used by only one user and hence logout feature is hardly used. This means the session never gets expired and hence data is collected and pumped continuously to back end servers.

With the availability of various analytic tools coupled with Digital Marketing, eCommerce enterprises can now create promotions for enticing consumers to buy and also link the promotions back to revenue generated to know the affect of marketing campaigns. All this at a fraction of cost spent on print media advertising!

We @ technologia carry expertise in developing enterprise mobile applications, integration and portals development. Please feel free to contact us for your requirements using the contact us link from our portal – technologiaworld.com