Leveraging HTML5 form for mobile e-commerce applications

These days, more and more e-commerce businesses are creating applications to leverage the power of the mobile platform. In fact, as retailers continue to offer avenues for consumers to make purchases on their smartphones and tablets, they are driving the uptick in mobile shopping activity.

According Business Insider, a recent BI Intelligence report shows that traffic from mobile devices comprised 40 percent of all e-commerce website visits on Black Friday in 2013. On top of this, 20 percent of all sales made that day came from purchases made via users' smartphones and tablets.

Judging by these statistics, it's no wonder why retailers are increasingly leveraging mobile apps to better connect with customers. As this trend continues, GetElastic contributor Linda Bustos predicted that HTML5 form will overtake native languages for e-commerce app development due to the advantages the component suite offers over other strategies.

"The ease of maintaining one experience that serves all platforms and the significant cost benefit will make this a no-brainer approach for organizations," Bustos wrote.

In fact, InstantShift contributor James Marshall noted that there are already several big name retailers that leverage HTML5 form to power their e-commerce offerings, including Dutch sports store G-Force, the U.K.'s Merchworld, and The Wantist. In addition, shoe retailer Zeus, Danish Loome Bags and designer furniture company Kontenta also utilize HTML5.

One of the main advantages of using HTML5 form for e-commerce apps is its inherent ability to easily change with the retailer's offerings. Each time the company wants to add new products to the app, an update must be created. With HTML5, developers only need to create a single version of this upgrade that will function across every operating system. This not only saves time and resources during the upgrade process, but can also ensure a faster time-to-market of the new offerings.