The Smartphone Future

The Smartphone–for Better and for Worse

Where are you reading this article right now? Odds are that it is on a mobile device, even if you find yourself in your home, in your office, or dare we say, on your vacation! Even when there are multiple screens on around us, our attention is increasingly being given to that device that we hold in the palm of our hands–constantly!

Wherever we are–and whatever it is that we might be doing–our mobile devices now go with us–and with connectivity, that a decade or so ago would have been unimaginable. When you are at work or at a conference, at the beach or the pool, at the park or at a movie, look at how many folks you walk past who are staring at their smartphone or their tablet. From a seat at a restaurant, to a seat on a commuter train, to a seat at a sporting event, the one constant is seeing many–if not most–individuals gazing at the smartphone that they seemingly have almost surgically attached to them. Consider the headlines that were made when university researchers recently found that one in ten college students they surveyed admitted to having checked their phones during sex! And needless to say, probably the scariest thing in all of modern life is just how many of your fellow drivers are multitasking with their mobile electronics when they really, really need to be completely focused on keeping their car between the lines!

Whatever our true connection to our smartphones and whether one labels this as an attachment or indeed, as an addiction, these devices have become-for better and yes, for worse–the central hub of most of our lives. We may long for the days before we were able to be connected to anyone and everyone 24/7/365. We may wonder how we ever got through a day without knowing how many steps we had taken, how many calories we had eaten, and yes, how much screen time we had used. We may joke about how nearly every problem depicted in a "Seinfeld" episode could have been solved if Jerry, George, Elaine, and Kramer, simply had an iPhone back in the day.

And yet, for all the pitfalls of the smartphone, and for all that can come from their use–and overuse, no one can argue with the transformative impact that having the power and knowledge of the world at your fingertips has on all of our lives. Game changing, radically reshaping, and life saving are all terms we can conservatively use in describing the impact of this technological revolution that rests (well, it doesn't exactly have the chance to ever rest, now does it!) in the palm of our hands.

Smart Shopping is Fast Becoming... Shopping

And of course, one of the most profound changes that the smartphone has ushered into our lives is that fact that commerce–and the chance to spend money–is now constantly with us on our smartphones! For at least a decade now, retail analysts and tech experts have talked about the mobile commerce revolution. Well, today that revolution is now upon us!

Consider the report recently released by the analyst firm eMarketer–one that literally does have the story in its headline: "Smartphones Will Account for More than One-Third of Ecommerce Sales in 2019." One amazing factoid is that in 2019, we, as a consumer society, Americans are fast swiping our way to the point that this year, for the first time, over half of all of us that have a smartphone will use the device in the palm of our hands to make an online purchase of some type! And yes, that includes your grandmother who just uses her iPhone for calling, your Dad who still can't quite seem to understand the difference between publicly posting and privately messaging you on Facebook, and your coworker who believes that the "Deep State" is surveilling everything he does on his device and keeps it wrapped in aluminum foil–just to be safe! And perhaps even more amazing–eMarketer's research has found that the "average" smartphone shopper–and we know there's likely a huge disparity to be found in that universe between the person who buys once from HomeDepot.com on Black Friday, and your neighbor who seemingly has a half dozen or more Amazon boxes sitting on her (or his) doorstep each and every day–spends $1,763 per year on their phone! Yes, vive la révolution!

Just how fast is smartphone shopping growing here in the US? Consider that online e-commerce sales in aggregate are currently estimated to be in excess of $600 billion annually! As the eMarketer analysis of the present state of the American online marketplace shows, in 2019, the PC still dominates the overall market–with well-over half of all e-commerce sales ($331.85 billion) still originating on a desktop computer in in 2019 (Ah, what are we all doing when we are supposed to be "working?" (one guess!)). However, this year, just over a third of all e-commerce buying–amounting to a whopping $203.94 billion–will originate on a smartphone!

And perhaps even more important than the fact that the smartphone is becoming the entryway into the world of ecommerce is the diverse ways that consumers are using their phones to, yes, spend real money! Consider that the eMarketer research found that as of early 2019, when it comes to just mobile device users making use of apps (not including using their browser to access retailers and service providers directly):

• 57% of all smartphone/tablet owners have used a mobile retail app to look for more information about a product or service;
• 51% of all smartphone/tablet owners have used a mobile retail app to buy a product or service;
• 28% of all smartphone/tablet owners have used a mobile wallet app to pay in-store (e.g., ApplePay, Android Pay, Starbucks App, etc.)
• 24% of all smartphone/tablet owners have used a grocery app (e.g., AmazonFresh, FreshDirect, Walmart Grocery, etc.);
• 21% of all smartphone/tablet owners have used a shared economy service app (e.g., Uber, Lyft, Airbnb, etc.); and
• 6% of all smartphone/tablet owners have used a meal kit subscription service app (e.g., Blue Apron, HelloFresh, etc.).

Perhaps most importantly of all, their study found that mobile apps are becoming the de facto entry point for consumers to retailers and service providers in our modern age! Indeed, the eMarketer study found that just 20% of all smartphone/tablet owners have not used an app on their device for one of these shopping purposes! Even in the oldest age group in their study (and it really, really pains me to say that this demographic is categorized as the "55+" club!), less than a third of all of those in the AARP-eligible category have yet to use an e-commerce app to purchase a good or employ a service. And when it comes to the "younger crowd," they are not just using apps to obtain goods and services, they are using them frequently–and not as a "one off." Indeed, eMarketer found that over 60% of American mobile device owners between the ages 18 and 34 had used a mobile retail app to purchase a product or service in just the past month!

And the future of e-commerce–and indeed of retail in general–will be even more smartphone-centric in the coming years than it already is today! Consider the fact that smartphone spending will more than double by 2022! Even as the growth rate for smartphone mobile commerce is projected to slow (if only because the penetration level will become so high over the next few years), consider that eMarketer's research shows that the growth rate in 2019 for e-commerce (37.7%) will dwarf that of the desktop e-commerce (5%) shopping that has been the driving force behind the growth of all online commerce for the past decade!

Analysis

The bottom-line on all of this is really quite simple. Want growth for your consumer-focused business, and even today in the business-to-business (B2B) realm? The shift to smartphone-first shopping and buying means that mobile commerce should be the first focus of your marketing efforts. From app development, to in-store marketing, to location-based targeting, and a whole host of other possibilities, anyone who is looking to separate consumers from their dollars should be asking one question today: What is our mobile strategy? From the largest of consumer product companies to the smallest single-person start-up with just a dream, one needs to begin to think of mobile first and foremost when it comes to how we will market, how we will advertise, and indeed, how we will operate our business today.

So get off your phone and start doing something–or maybe get on your smartphone and explore the many and varied ways that progressive, and aggressive, companies today are taking advantage of mobile commerce to reach consumers where they are today - and where they will be tomorrow!

About David Wyld

David Wyld ([email protected]) is a Professor of Strategic Management at Southeastern Louisiana University in Hammond, Louisiana. He is a management consultant, researcher/writer, publisher, executive educator, and experienced expert witness. He is the founder and publisher of both The IDEA Publishing [The Best in News, Information and Content Marketing] and Modern Business Press [The Best in Academic Journals].

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