Trend 1: Focusing on Mobile Commerce in the “Now” Economy

As customers become increasingly mobile and connected, time becomes the scarcest
resource in their lives. They choose brands that provide the convenience of access and
transaction. They expect companies to deliver instant solutions to their needs without
the hassles. The speed of delivery is often as important as the products and services
themselves. In the “now” economy, real-time marketplaces—the Ubers and the Airbnbs
of the world—that connect sellers and buyers are flourishing.
Mobile phones are arguably responsible for this. No other channels beat mobile phones
when it comes to proximity to customers. Moreover, no other channels are as personal
and convenient as mobile phones. Therefore, when start-ups flood the market with their
on-demand services, the adoption level is unprecedented.
As more and more customers make purchases on mobile phones—mobile commerce
was 30 percent of the total U.S. e-commerce in 2015 as reported by the Internet Retailer
portal—it is imperative for marketers to put mobile devices at the center of their
omnichannel strategy.
BMW UK, for instance, now allows customers to buy cars with their mobile phones. When
customers scan an image of a BMW car found in print and outdoor advertisements with
their mobile phones, they will be taken to the relevant website page to see the car details
and complete a purchase. The entire process can take as little as 10 minutes.
The next big category, wearables, can potentially fuel this trend further. Like mobile
phones, wearables are almost always in close proximity to customers. In fact, customers
are supposed to wear them at all times. Because wearables are attached to the customers,
they can also help marketers collect data on customer-path patterns. Since the sales of
wearables are projected to exceed 305 million units in 2020 according to Euromonitor,
the “now” economy is not showing any signs of slowing down.

Excerpt from pages 175-176: Kotler, Setiawan & Kartajaya (2017). Marketing 4.0 Moving from
Traditional to Digital