M-commerce Shoppers Admit Security Concerns

Friday, August 9, 2013 - 09:44 by Paul Tissington

Retailers have to work hard to convince consumers that they can carry out safe shopping online via their individual e-commerce sites, although with more and more sales being shifted to mobile devices there is a need to address this emerging market as comprehensively as the desktop equivalent.

Retail Digital reports that a new study from Jumio has found that 65 per cent of people who are making purchases via m-commerce services will abandon their carts before completing transactions, with over half of this proportion failing to go through with a sale as a result of concerns over security There is a perception that sharing personal information via smartphones and tablets, such as credit card details, is a more dangerous practice than it might be via regular e-commerce platforms.

47 per cent of respondents complained of mobile checkout experiences which took too long to load and complete, while almost a quarter said that they had attempted to make a purchase but found that their order could not be placed for some technical reason. Jumio spokesperson David Pope said that some m-commerce retailers need to work a lot harder in order to convince customers that they can safely make payments from their portable devices. He also said that mobile sites and apps needed to be optimised in order to improve the user experience, or else cart abandonment rates would continue to be very high.

Of course once a basket has been partially filled, there are tactics available to retailers if they want to convert uncertain visitors into paying customers.

Retailers also need to remember that customers may use smartphones and tablets to carry out research prior to making a purchase on a desktop computer at a later date, so not every abandoned cart should be seen as a missed opportunity when shopping online.