Smartphone adoption and usage continues to increase in the US and throughout the world. Alongside this growth, however, is the surge in m-commerce behavior users engage in on their smartphones. The devices allow consumers to manage their entire shopping experience from gathering product information and comparing prices to making the final purchase. As such, mobile purchasing is increasing with just under 30% of smartphone users in the US having made a purchase using their smartphone. Marketers and e-retailers alike feel this number could and should be higher. Only 14% make purchases using the device with high frequency, according to ourmobileplanet.com, and 81% do so with low frequency. Opinions are mixed regarding the main roadblock to purchasing on smartphones, but a closer analysis tells a deeper story.

E-retailers and marketers can proactively improve how smartphone shoppers interact with their brand by strategically adapting their sites (both mobile and standard) as well as their apps for a better experience. For those that do not make purchases on the smartphone, 67% would simply rather use their desktop or PC and an additional 37% feel the transaction is not secure. These statistics point directly to the issues that need to be addressed.

Specific Tactics for Pushing M-Commerce to Next Level
First, developers and internet marketers need to make the smartphone payment process more like that which is experienced on the desktop or PC. One essential way to do this is to make the check-out process easier. Mobile payment company Clover is looking to do just that. Their one-tap service stores payment details in a secure account that can be accessed at check-out on participating e-retailer sites and apps. Once at check-out, consumers can simply tap the Clover pay button and bypass entering their details. This is especially valuable as debit and credit cards are the payment of choice with consumers using them 59% of the time to make their mobile purchases. This is one essential step to improve the payment process, and by extension the overall consumer experience.

From there, e-retailing developers can squarely address the privacy and security concern of shoppers by first ensuring the payment methods are 100% secure. Companies need to partner with reputable payment processers to establish a secure connection for their customers and offer guarantees to support this. Guaranteeing privacy and security will inspire the kind of customer confidence that is needed by online businesses to push their customers to do more mobile purchasing. Additionally, companies need to utilize security feature like Visa's Verified By Visa program and pioneer similar measures built specifically for the mobile platform that add an extra layer of security from a name they trust.

Still further, internet marketers need to proactively promote the secure payment system that the retailers have displaying this information prominently on the site and making customers aware of it in all their online promotional content. Customers need to see the logos of the secure payment system as well as the details of the guarantees displayed where they can easily see it before check-out to inspire confidence throughout the shopping experience. In the end, between these different tactics, e-retailers will address the needs of their customers and push M-Commerce to the next level.