Back in 2008, I was just starting to access the Internet using a phone. Of course, it was a regular, Nokia, feature phone, but just the idea of being able to access the World Wide Web using such a small device was really fascinating. Nowadays, we’re leaving in a permanently connected world, with the Internet being available to everybody and, surprisingly or not, it’s being accessed from mobile devices more and more often.

Google said that there are already more searches being made from mobile devices than from PCs and this can have a big impact on websites, especially when it comes to ecommerce. For example, 57 percent of the traffic during this year’s Black Friday season came from smartphones or tablets, while Walmart’s sales from mobile devices almost doubled from 2014 to 2015.

Considering this, it’s not surprising to hear a lot of people saying that desktop ecommerce will soon become history, with mobile taking over. Well, we don’t agree with such statements and we will tell you why in a jiffy!

First of all, even though traffic from mobile devices is growing blazing fast, it doesn’t always lead to actual sales. Yes, people are opening emails from their phones and even click on those links they’re containing, but in terms of conversions, mobile is way, but waaaay behind desktop. Oh, and the growth rate is very slow, at least for the moment.

Secondly, let’s not forget about the checkout process. Heck, there are a lot of people having trouble with this step even on desktop, not just on mobile. When shopping from a smartphone or a tablet, users find it difficult to fill out all their payment information and shipping address, which is a big deterrent to mobile ecommerce.

Unless you’re a big retailer, with repeating customers who have their information already saved, you won’t notice so many sales made from mobile devices.

Finally, we should also mention that special category of users, which want to find out as much as possible about a product or service before buying it. Even though they might open emails and click on links, being just one press of a button away from a transaction, they won’t do it unless they do some proper research. And by this we don’t mean just reading the product/service description and feedback from a few users. No, they will go much deeper, search for reviews on other websites, compare prices and even watch video reviews. And this, folks, happens on a PC most times.

This being said, it’s obvious that even though mobile device will play an essential role in the purchasing progress, they won’t replace a desktop or a laptop in the near future. Of course, this doesn’t mean that marketers should ignore this channel when creating strategies. People might not make so many purchases from their phones, but what do you think they will use for reading promo emails and visit websites?! The shopping experience should be optimized for multiple platforms, it’s essential!

What are your thoughts on this? Are you making purchases from your phone or tablet or your still relying on your PC? Let us know what do you think about this topic, using the comments section below.

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