Making a Business Case for Mobile

Nov 16 2011

-Brandon Eley

For years, marketers have been saying “next year will be the year of mobile” and ever year, we have gotten closer and closer to that point. But despite the massive increases in mobile adoption, decision makers (especially small business owners) have been hesitant to embrace mobile. No, next year will not be the year of mobile. The reign of mobile has already begun, we are now in the decade of mobile.

According to a study by Gartner’s, mobile phones will overtake PCs as the most common Web access device worldwide by 2013. It makes perfect sense - we have our internet-connected mobile devices with us all the time, and spend far more time with them than we do with our desktop, or even laptop, computers.

But the fact that people are accessing the Internet from mobile devices still doesn’t make a business case for mobile marketing channels. After all, new smartphones have few problems loading most standard websites, and as data networks keep getting faster, do you still need a dedicated mobile website?

The data overwhelmingly says yes. A recent study from eConsultancy found that mobile accounts for 10% of e-commerce visits, but that traffic had half the conversion rate. This was an e-commerce store without a mobile-optimized website. I decided to run some numbers on my own e-commerce business. For all of 2011 (so far), 12% of our overall traffic came from mobile devices. And sure enough, it converted at less than half the conversion rate of non-mobile visitors.

What could doubling the conversion rate on 12% of your traffic do to your sales? I ran some numbers using the average e-commerce conversion rate of 2% and 100,000 visitors per month with a $100 average order. The results were staggering. Revenues increased 6.38%, or an additional $144,000 per year. If that’s not a business case for a dedicated mobile website, I don’t know what is.

Mobile adoption is increasing at an exponential rate, yet Google recently found that 79% of large online advertisers still do not have a mobile-optimized website. I’d bet money that number is much higher for small businesses. So, what are you waiting for?

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If experience is the best teacher, than Brandon Eley is definitely well-schooled. His natural talent for graphic design led to his first job designing corporate presentations and print materials. Then, barely out of his teens, he and a partner launched an online retail business in the then untapped market for large-sized men’s shoes. Their need for an e-commerce enabled website led to his trial by fire indoctrination into the world of web design, online retailing, and Internet marketing. His early endeavors continue to pay off, as his specialty shoe business, www.2bigfeet.com, is celebrating its tenth year in business, remaining among the top three in its market niche.

Honing the expertise he gained from his personal endeavors into a web development business for small to medium-sized online retailers, Brandon put himself through school at LaGrange College, all the while creating a reputation for developing websites that help businesses succeed. In 2006, his consulting firm, EleyTech, was acquired by Kelsey Advertising & Design, and Brandon became the agency’s Interactive Director.

Currently credited with pioneering work in the development of mobile websites, Brandon never stops learning. He’s considered a leader among his peers and was named the “2008 E-Commerce Guru of the Year” by SitePoint.com, an online community of website professionals and developers with more than 300,000 members worldwide. A frequent contributor to SitePoint.com, Brandon is currently co-authoring a book with the working title: “The Art and Science of Online Marketing.” He has been certified by Google as a Qualified Advertising Professional and is a member of the Information Architecture Institute.