SMBs should employ mobile commerce strategies

Retailers had a good year in 2012, as mobile and electronic payments methods helped boost their sales numbers significantly. Small and medium-sized businesses in particular have benefited from these ecommerce strategies.

As a result, a recent Offers.com report provided several suggestions on how small businesses can be more efficient in 2013 - some of which included using online and mobile payment strategies.

"Small businesses that start the year off with the right tools will end up cutting costs, manage their day-to-day tasks more effectively, and increase productivity," said Steve Schaffer, CEO of Offers.com.

While many companies have already made ecommerce capabilities available on the internet, they have generally been slower to adopt mobile payment strategies. However, in order to take advantage of the platform's growing popularity, Offers.com advised small businesses to begin accepting transactions via mobile devices.

In a recent report on the state of mobile retail sales, Forrester projected that United States retailers will make more than $12 billion in 2013 from smartphone, tablet and laptop purchases. Currently, only a quarter of American internet users have shopped on their smartphones, but Forrester expects that number to increase rapidly, with mobile sales totals growing 33 percent annually through at least 2017.