Bony Fingers

ComScore research shows that Americans spent over a billion dollars shopping on their smartphones in the first three months this year.  Sounds like a lot, but it's less than 3% of all e-commerce sales for 2011:1.  Why?  Smartphones have certainly become ubiquitous enough, expected to reach 50% penetration of Americans sometime this year.

Bony fingers.  That's why.  You need skinny, little, bony fingers to establish accounts and buy confidently online.  And that is only after you have mastered squinting and gesturing at slow loading pages filled with minuscule pictures, to even get to the part where you have to enter data - like your 16 digit card number, etc.

Who does this really well?  Amazon.  

1. They've been doing it a long time - they realized in 2006 that mobile was not going to simply be an extension of the web.  
2. It's primarily value-added for existing customers whose data is already captured, so you can

• one-click shop; 
• shop with a bar code; 
• shop by voice; 
• and search with auto-fills.

Otherwise, Mr. and Ms. Retailer, work your fingers to the bone, and you know what you get.