How the Trading Industry Can Help Small Businesses Adapt to a Mobile World
By: Carl Conton
Never before has the use of mobile devices been as high as it is today and for every day that passes, more and more people go completely “mobile.” In turn, this has created a greater need for small business owners to accommodate this new market space. Unfortunately, it has proven to be difficult for many, and a lot of business owners feel like the mobile opportunities are slipping through their fingers.
As a small business owner struggling to adapt to a mobile market, there is one unlikely industry that can help and inspire you. Let us take a closer look at what I mean.
Why You Should be Concerned About Mobile Usage
Before we dive into how and why the trading industry is driving mobile development for all of us, we need to take a look at just how important the mobile market is.
As of 2018, close to 50% of all internet traffic globally originates from mobile devices, and if you look at Asia and Africa, the numbers are much higher. What is even more impressive is that all indicators are showing that these numbers will only grow and within a few years, mobile usage will far exceed that of traditional desktops.
As you probably understand, this means our world is entering a new era, and any person or small business that’s not ready to follow the stream will be left behind. In other words, if you haven’t made your business—including your websites and products—mobile-friendly yet, you need to get on it.
The Trading Industry
So how come the trading industry is paving the way? Well, there are a few theories about this.
Firstly, the trading industry was one of the first industries in the world to fully adapt to the internet and start offering online trading so they are used to being quick at adapting to new trends. In fact, in many ways, the leading financial firms were light years ahead of other global industries in terms of internet adaptation only a few decades ago.
The second theory is that there is no shortage of funds in the industry, meaning the established brands can allocate more money to mobile development than leaders in other industries can. And that’s exactly what they have been doing lately.
Personally, I think it’s a combination of the two, and if we look at the history, innovation and money are what drives development.
How Mobile-Friendly is the Online Trading Industry
There are hardly any trading services, whether it’s a broker, an analytic firm, or anything else, that haven’t optimized their mobile services already.
To find one of the top examples of how the trading industry is adjusting to this new mobile demand, we have to look at how sophisticated the trading apps in the UK are becoming. Nowhere else in the industry has the shift from desktop to mobile been as quick as in the stock trading industry and the results are unparalleled.
Only a few years ago, trading apps were something mostly used for analytic work and simple trades. However, today, most mobile trading software can compete side by side with some of the best desktop platforms, and the industry suspects that most trades (62% +) will be conducted on mobile devices by 2020.
But it’s not only the trading platforms that are mobile-friendly, everything from the websites and payment solutions, to customer service has been fully integrated on apps. And this is where you can draw inspiration, find tips, and get a better understanding of how quickly this new market space is developing.
Last Words
By now, every small business owner out there should have realized the importance of offering a good mobile product, and if you haven’t it’s about time you start researching it.
And if you ever feel stuck or lost in the upcoming and sometimes confusing world of mobile usage, you can turn to the trading industry for inspiration. Also, the trading industry isn’t just leading the way right now but is predicted to continue driving the development in the future. This means that we will be able to use the largest financial institutions and their mobile software as indicators of where the mobile industry is headed.
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