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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
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.
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.)
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.
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.
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