2016 has seen remarkable changes in how people view online shopping as a whole. Last year, physical stores were full of people swarming to grab the lowest Black Friday deals, but this 2016, we’ve seen tides change as people now turn to online shopping because of its hassle-free benefits.
Even though sales were expected to go up, but that’s no longer the case. “In 2016, consumers can find most of those deals online over the course of a couple days, and they don’t have to brave massive crowds to do it,” Fortune concludes.
Online shopping has indeed reshaped people’s buying habits. Before, Black Friday sales were anticipated as its date comes near. However, this 2016, Amazon dared to change the status quo as they started their Black Friday deals as early as November 1.
TechCrunch has crunched the numbers for us, with a report on Adobe’s final numbers on Black Friday. They figured out that this year’s sales surpassed estimates, with $3.34 billion – 21.6 percent growth, year-over-year.
Thanksgiving and Black Friday mobiles sales were over the top, with top online retailers like Amazon, Target, and Walmart releasing numbers that mobile has opened a new era of online shopping, with its tumultuous contribution on their online sales via exclusive mobile app deals.
2016 is indeed the year of mobile ecommerce taking over ecommerce websites.
They added that, “in 2020, mobile apps are projected to generate 188.9 billion U.S. dollars in revenues via app stores and in-app advertising.”
Moving app: from web to app
Binny Bansal’s gamble on going app-only earned mixed reactions. It did not take too long before Amazon India caught up with their growth.
Flipkart has dared to go where other sites won’t try; an app-only ecommerce store in India. Despite the revenue and its ruling power in India, this only gave Amazon India the asset it needed to get ahead of the competition. Perhaps it was too soon to leave the desktop-only audience, however, Flipkart paved the way that it is possible to run a store that would reach any user from any part of the country (or the world) via a mobile app.
While shutting down websites in favor of mobile apps hasn’t been a prerogative for most companies online, mobile apps has shown remarkable performance in this year’s sales report.
A mobile app only environment does wonders for an ecommerce site, but as we’ve seen with Flipkart’s current condition, it is without its own cons as well.
Data is consolidated in the app environment. We are used to tracking sales both in desktop and mobile. Through a mobile app, efforts are more targeted and user experience is consistent through and through. What you collect is raw data; no need to think of…