The mobile tipping point

We live in a mobile-first world. The mobile has now tipped over to become the device of choice for consumers accessing the internet. Depending on the source you refer to, all suggest that roughly north of 70% of consumers now go online solely via their mobile. Yet while the vast majority of organisations, from retailers to publishers, are beginning to create mobile strategies and nearly half of top 100 brands have a mobile optimised website according to the latest IAB statistics, many are still experiencing extremely low rates of response and conversion via the mobile.

Organisations respond to the fast-growing mobile usage from consumers in varying ways – dedicated mobile apps, responsive design in the browser, and HTML5, to name a few. Despite this huge and growing investment, today just a fraction of organisations are able to attribute any meaningful revenue generation to the mobile platform. And one of the key challenges facing these organisations is the difficulty of creating a usable environment within the constraints of the small screen device. Whether browsing, shopping, or interacting via social channels, users want a simple, intuitive experience from the moment they arrive at a site.

Naturally, most sites require a user login in order to provide an engaging experience like commenting, sharing, and purchasing. But one of the biggest barriers to achieving engagement is asking mobile users to register by slowly entering details such as name and password or filling in a registration form via small touchscreens or tiny keyboards.  Yet without providing a way of engaging with customers, organisations cannot evolve the mobile strategy to ask for any information at all.

The easiest way to provide that engagement infrastructure is via the social identities used by millions as a matter of course to keep in touch with communities of friends and family. Offering social login and enabling users to register via an existing social identity such as Facebook, Twitter, Google or LinkedIn not only eases engagement but it also supports the growing consumer desire to share personal data in order to receive more relevant offers and information from brands.

Are you using social login?