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Buying Stuff On Your Phone Still Sucks (cnet.com)
Despite all the advancements smartphone companies have made on the phone, desktop platforms continue to be their preferred way to buy stuff online. CNET spoke with a number of people who not only confirmed that they bought things using a laptop or a desktop computer, but also listed the reasons why they don't use their smartphones to do big transactions. From the report: For now, though, buying stuff on a phone is often terrible, so at least for this Cyber Monday you're likely still buying stuff on a laptop, with its big screen and full physical keyboard. While people are buying on mobile websites and apps a lot more -- up 65 percent from last year -- consumers are three times more likely to complete a purchase on a PC than a phone, according to an Adobe mobile retail report released last month. That's resulted in PCs bringing in 75 percent of retailers' online sales this year, versus just 16 percent from phones, the report said. To consumers, phone screens are too small, pinch-to-zoom features aren't available in mobile apps, it's hard to find things easily, and checkout using that tiny touchscreen keyboard is a pain. When people do buy on mobile, they make smaller purchases than on desktops, Adobe found. Retailers stand to lose billions of dollars in sales if they don't get their act together, Adobe said. And consumers will continue to be frustrated when trying to buy.
I'm loathe to do anything other than look up stuff on a small device. Mobile websites and apps are crap with very limited interfaces.
Their mobile app rocks and is highly responsive (I mean in the way it provides up-to-date / real-time pricing info on auctions you are watching, not regarding UI design), which is critical when an auction is ending. It keeps people from being chained to a desktop PC, which in and of itself makes it worthwhile.
The experience I had at a retail shop was that tons of people would browse on the iphone using mobile web but nobody would buy there. People would buy on the desktop web, but when given the choice of buying through the app instead of the mobile web (which included a much easier checkout flow with card scanning or applepay/paypal options) they definitely were more than willing to purchase on their phones. The conversion rate for the app was considerably higher than even the desktop web conversion rate (far fewer casual browsers).
I think its possible to get people to buy on their phones but it has to be seamless and typing into web forms is not desirable.
"In America, first you get the sugar, then you get the power, then you get the women..." -H. Simpson
Never brought anything on a phone, brought quite a bit on a tablet though. Seems the article does not think there is anything between a full desktop/laptop and a phone, which surely everyone on slashdot is going to be puzzled by.
i'm so surprised
Pretty much impossible to do meaningful comparison between products on a small device. I only buy using my phone when I know what I need and don't need to compare with similar products.
Only LUDDITES try to use LUDDITE phones to buy LUDDITE junk. Modern app appers only use apps to app other apps!
Apps!
I think its possible to get people to buy on their phones but it has to be seamless and typing into web forms is not desirable.
Agreed. The only companies I've seen get mobile purchasing to a good approximation of right are Amazon, Apple and Starbucks. Pretty much every other mobile purchasing experience I've had has been needlessly annoying and/or difficult. There may be a few others doing it well that I haven't dealt with but most seem to be stuck in the 1990s with their purchasing "experience" and shopping carts.
Not sure about anyone else but I found that tablets and phones were only really good for quick views of things. I can't even be bothered to write email on the devices.
Having to type in your shipping details on a phone touchscreen is extremely painful.
I think a lot of this has to do with the lingering effects of a hundred "don't close your browse / click refresh / click twice" warnings during that critical credit card submit/commit step. They make me nervous enough on a PC wired to a network - I really don't want to see a dropped connection during this step if I'm my mobile device. (So, I may build up a shopping cart with my phone, but I usually wait until I'm at a trusted PC before buying.)
As I understand it, by "shopping cart" you're referring to the model in which the store assigns a randomly assigned identifier for a multiset of products that a user is considering buying, and then once the payment is approved for those items, they are moved to a new order. You are correct that this model became popular in the 1990s. But your use of "stuck" as well as "needlessly annoying and/or difficult" implies that there's something wrong with the "shopping cart" model. What has obsoleted it? The "1-Click" model pioneered by Amazon requires first creating a durable account identifier (name and password, backed by an address that can receive email and/or a phone number that can receive SMS) so that products added from the same account are combined into an order at the end of the business day. This works for merchants to which buyers expect to return, such as those you mention (Amazon, Apple and Starbucks). But a lot of people don't want to spend time creating an account with a merchant to which they do not foresee returning.
TFS and TFA both utterly fail to identify or even mention one of the largest issues with mobile devices today.
Security.
Forget flying to the red planet to bridge the gap for survival. I could print the number of times we've read the words "root access" regarding mobile device hacking in 2016 and have enough material to build an actual bridge to Mars.
Does the tablet on which you "brought quite a bit" run a desktop operating environment, such as Windows? Or does it run a smartphone operating environment, such as iOS or Android? Perhaps purchases on a Surface Pro or Surface 3 get assigned to "desktop" while purchases on an iPad or Galaxy Tab get dumped in "mobile".
Why can't the site read your device's GPS and present a list of nearby shipping destinations?
I run a photography business and website. I was advised by "experts" that my site had to be mobile friendly because many of my sales would come from mobile users. So, my website is mobile friendly and very easy to order from on a phone. How many sales have I gotten via phones? NONE, in 2 years. I no longer waste my money even advertising to mobile devices, and target desktop users only.
If you're still in the dark ages of mobile internet and try to do everything through a web browser, you're toast.
I don't do a lot of shopping at all, but the few times I had to buy something from a smartphone, it was a pretty straightforward process as long as I did it through the app. Some apps allow me to scan the barcode of a product to buy more of it. Others let me buy online then use GPS location to find the nearest store to pick it up if I'm on the go. Try that on a desktop.
I have no problem buying books on my phone. When I go to Half-Price Books if I see a book that is interesting I just get out my phone and navigate to abe.com, which is a database of many small independent booksellers.
Last week, I did this to buy a book that H-P had on the shelf for $8.95. A bookstore on Abe had the book for a little under $4, shipping included. Abour a month ago I did the same thing with a book they had on the shelf for $20. An Abe store sold it to me for $3.50, shipping included. I can make the purchase right in the store because abe.com has a pretty good mobile site for small screens.
They even have free wi-fi at hpb to make this easier, though I mostly just use my cellular connection.
My laptop broke unexpectedly one day and for several days I was forced to use my phone to browse the web, and use email, while I waited for a replacement.
It's only until you actually have to use your phone to do serious things, rather than just dicking around, that you realise just how awful the experience is and how much you'd rather use a proper computer.
Summation 2
I do the bulk of amazon shopping on my 5S, with a screen some allege it way too small in this era of surfboard-sized phones.
I find the app quite useful, I don't have to pinch zoom, I can read the reviews and product info just fine.. even with eyes that can't see clearly without glasses except at precisely 3.5 inches away. I can read this app with my progressives no problem.
Maybe everyone else's mobile app sucks?
The "Civilized World" jumped the shark ca. 1973.
But your use of "stuck" as well as "needlessly annoying and/or difficult" implies that there's something wrong with the "shopping cart" model. What has obsoleted it?
There is nothing wrong with the shopping cart concept per-se. The problem is that most of them are terribly clumsy even on a desktop computer. On a mobile device they are nigh unusable. Especially if it is with a company you do not regularly do business with. I should almost NEVER have to enter my home address, shipping address, or payment info to make a purchase on my phone or tablet. Guest purchases should be almost as easy as purchases with companies you regularly do business with. Shockingly few companies really grasp this concept.
But a lot of people don't want to spend time creating an account with a merchant to which they do not foresee returning.
Agreed. So companies should partner with a transaction processor so that they do not have make a new account for a one time purchase. If I have an iPhone I've already got a business relationship with Apple so I'd be fine with merchant's offering ApplePay. Or Amazon's equivalent. Or Google's. Or... you get the point. Pick your favorite among the various top 10 or so options. Visa, MC, Amex, Discover, etc should be making this as easy as possible. I have ZERO interest in creating a new account for every bloody merchant out there. Make the transaction easy and give me a reason to want to come back to your store if you want recurring business from me.
People buying on the web want to look at pictures, read reviews, do research, price compare, as well as read shipping and transaction fine print etc. You can't (or at least don't want to) do this on a phone.
love is just extroverted narcissism
So companies should partner with a transaction processor so that they do not have make a new account for a one time purchase. [...] Pick your favorite among the various top 10 or so options.
And have half your customers leave because "your favorite" happens not to coincidentally match theirs. A user tries to check out, and the site accepts PayPal and credit cards, but entering credit card payment credentials is too cumbersome, and the user has been a victim of a PayPal hold.
Modern app appers know that ONLY 5 inch apps can app apps! Keyboards are for LUDDITES!
Apps!
And have half your customers leave because "your favorite" happens not to coincidentally match theirs.
Did you give it a moment's thought? Vendors don't just have to work with one transaction processor. If they used ApplePay, Android Pay, and Paypal they could easily cover most of the popular options. Visa, Amazon, etc wouldn't be hard either. Companies that can't be bothered to give their customers options to make buying easy will lose sales and rightly so.
And I didn't even get in to what a cluster**** it is to actually search for products on many mobile devices. Lots of companies are seriously clueless about how to make a website work well on mobile.
This. I don't trust my smartphone at all. I won't do anything more critical than surf facebook on it.
It's adorable that you honestly believe your PC to be somehow more secure, particularly if it runs Windows.
I don't know why it has to be this way, but the mobile web in general just sucks. There isn't a website that I can visit that doesn't pop up at least 1 or 2 interstitial ads that are difficult or impossible to close.
Don't even get me started on clickbait slide shows, browser redirect hijacks (which for some reason still work on mobile browsers even though desktop browsers licked that problem a decade ago), and other senseless bullshit that makes the mobile web a terrible experience.
An honorable mention to all the mobile web developers out there that think your average smart phone is a Cray supercomputer with infinite resources. Ford, I am looking right at you.
Well, if you're already signed up for a service and you need a practical way to press the "order now" button, mobile apps do the job well. I book cinema tickets regularly and all I need to do is pick film, time and seat.
Someone else has already pointed out that eBay also works well, so I guess it's a matter of having a solid account functionality, with payment method stored safely in advance of going shopping with your mobile.
If I wanted to buy something expensive or that needed specifying, searching for multiple alternative suppliers and then pressing the Buy now button, then yes, a bigger screen and keyboard is a much better idea.
Maybe everyone else's mobile app sucks?
For the most part this is correct. Amazon has a pretty useful mobile app. Apple does a pretty good job too. eBay and Starbucks seem to have a clue. Probably a few others but most mobile purchasing apps and website just suck sour frog ass. They're just terrible. Terrible at finding products, terrible at communicating information, inconvenient to pay for them, and badly designed in general. So guess which ones get the majority of my money when I am using my phone?
How much does it cost to integrate all these transaction processors, in both programmer wages and cost of hardware on which to test?
Who cares? It's a problem the company building the shopping cart should have to solve basically once. And that company is rarely the merchant themselves. There might be some transaction fees involved but so what? There already are such fees every time you use a credit card and people clearly don't care about that. The alternative is tons of lost sales and customer irritation at a terrible shopping experience. The question isn't what it will cost, the question is why aren't they already spending the money to fix the problem?
Companies that don't get the importance of providing a great mobile shopping experience are going to get eaten alive by companies that do understand this. If they aren't already investing heavily in solving the problem they're going to wish like hell they had in a the near future when Amazon and the rest who do get it bludgeon them to death.
Doing most things on your phone sucks.
the girl 19 uses her phone but all she does is watch movies and videos and reads stuff. The boy 17 same thing, watches videos when he leaves his desktop. Except for quick lookups for stuff all purchases happen on the desktop and mostly for games or computer hardware.
Myself I can't phantom wtf I would need that I would need that instant and must browse some shitty scale down website and order that product.
by TheSpoom (715771) Uncaring Linux user here. I have nothing to add to this but please continue. *munches popcorn*
If you thought buying stuff was hard on a cell phone, try doing your homework on your cell phone. You laugh. But I seriously see an increasing number of college students today trying to finish their online homework assignments using their cell phones. Interestingly, usually these are the ones that score rather poorly on assignments. I cannot imagine how someone can possibly think that doing homework on their cell phone is a good idea.
Doing anything on a a phone sucks.
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
...I buy things very frequently from Amazon using the Amazon app on my cell phone.
It is bad enough when I buy something from my desktop/laptop and I start getting tons of emails (to my throwaway email account of course) from every merchant under the sun trying to get me to buy similar products. The last thing I want is for the phone app to give the merchant my phone number so that he can sell it to every call center out there. Order something on your phone...start getting cold calls from shady sellers at all hours of the day and night.
were using the "Google Armageddon" to scare website owners into having their current sites turn into responsive by of course redesigning them. It was a cash cow for me funnelled by FUD.
by TheSpoom (715771) Uncaring Linux user here. I have nothing to add to this but please continue. *munches popcorn*
I bought my house on my phone.... while I was out playing golf.
...for people who find web browsers too convenient and secure.
Adobe Business Catalyst has a horrible UI on the phone. Fortunately Shopify is much better.
+1 Insightful
The complete mess that has been caused by Google allowing the carriers to get away with not pushing timely patches to phones has made most security conscious people avoid using them for anything involving money (or otherwise sensitive info.)
I am using mobile platforms to purchase only 2 groups of items: :-). I o not have my own sniper scripts set up yet.
- ebooks
- ebay or egun.de auctions
For other purchases I prefer 20 tabs opened on 24" screen comparing options between sites before purchase.
with auctions mobile is required for last moment bids
500-2000 EUR i would count as quite large purchases (there is many more smaller 5-50 EUR) ... OMG! guns.
It depends on what i am buying , accessories or reloading equipment or
Guess what? With right price it does not matter that austere egun.de interface (very Y2K ) is designed for desktops only :-)
Here we are, complaining about crappy mobile sites - on Slashdot.
I have yet to be able to do any real "work" on a phone (or tablet). Typing is an issue, of course, not to mention the screen real estate. These devices are passable for the occasional email or touchy-game but the "real work" apps won't arrive until the device UI improves.
I'm an older person and I consider the 7" phone I have to be too small, a 19" large print edition would help people like me and fix OP's issues too
I've made a couple purchases using my iPhone. Fully native apps using Apple Pay are super simple to purchase items (check out Starbucks). However the mobile web (and 'hybrid' apps) tend to load way too many JS trackers and advertising frameworks. It slows things down, causes the interface to jump around, and makes navigation horrible. Stop bolting on all these 'tools' and write some good, clean, well designed code.
Sleep: A completely inadequate substitution for Caffeine.
Update, linking to CNet still sucks.
I've used a phone but it is slow. But even when I use a comp I boot using a USB drive with a Live Linux installed.
Typing on tiny screens is very difficult.
The thing is, zoom works really well compared to scrolling down for navigation and having to change loads of pages, etc. Mobile interface design is better if it's made to work with zooming rather than having a page with jumbo elements and barely anything on the screen. The information density of modern mobile UI design is aweful. You can either design it to zoom well and more more sense when zoomed our normally using the normal browser element, or you can zoom components yourself (click to expand, etc).