Apple has launched its iOS 10 on the world. What does that mean to you as an e-commerce or m-commerce business?

Let’s break it down.

Lock Screen & Push Notifications

The first big change is that the lock screen is engaging. It comprises two steps: 1) fingerprint scan and 2) full press of home button. By doing step 1, only the phone unlocks but it doesn’t take you to the home screen. Instead it gives you a moment to quickly catch up on you notifications and directly interact with certain apps, for instance messaging. This is where mobile apps benefit. Apple allows rich push notifications and supports images, gifs, audio and video.

This means you can send creative and personalised push messages to customers, and given how everyone in this generation functions on time deficits, they don’t actually have to get into the home menus and apps to be able to interact with your announcement.

You can recommend products to them based on their online behavioural patterns, announce new launches or flash sales, remind them about your winning personality. This allows you to pique their interest without nagging them. To be ubiquitous without being a spook.

While this has featured for a while on androids, it is a new step for iOS. And stats tell us that Apple users convert 10% more than android users. That’s a considerable percentage.

Unsubscribing

The concern with iOS 10’s Mail app is that it pops a banner at the top of the screen which reads, ‘This message is from a mailing list,’ with an Unsubscribe button. This really shouldn’t vex anybody because anyone can unsubscribe from receiving your e-mails even otherwise. But it does nudge one in the direction of thought that leads to highly personalised mails that resonate with the customer. But the surer way to overcome this is to focus on getting your message across via push notification on mobile apps, which could lead to the e-mail content.

Third Party Integration With Siri

This is a conditions-apply update and is limited to only a few utilities, like searching for photographs, payment options etc. but it can be extrapolated that in the long term this update will be further worked on and can be extended to options like searching for specific products on certain sites, sending push notifications via SMS etc.

Gifs & Effects

Now this may not be the highlight feature but it certainly is the fun-est. Just think, apart from a slew of static emoji you now have gifs and effects. Imagine texts with balloons floating upwards, fireworks exploding, text bubbles popping and other razzle-dazzle wafting on the customer’s screen.

Apple gave you the tools, it’s up to you how you can use it to your advantage and boost your m-commerce sales further.