In a June press release by Cisco, the company talks about the results of its third annual e-commerce study. The results? Mobile commerce is charging to the forefront and is, in fact, already a large revenue driver with massive upside potential. Dick Cantwell, vice president of IBSG’s Retail / CPG Practice said of the findings
“Mobile presents a revenue opportunity for retailers and opens up a new era of multichannel retail. Multichannel retailing has morphed into a web of shopper touchpoints across stores, catalogs, mobile devices, and the Internet. Retailers must start offering shoppers an ‘interconnected shop’ if they are to take advantage of the mobile opportunity.”
The study notes that companies that are already executing the basics of e-commerce well can gain the trust, and the repeat business, of customers who want a fast, reliable and hassle-free and seamless mobile experience. Adding a mobile channel will be a key aspect in allowing customers to execute their transactions whenever they are so inclined and wherever they may be.
What this means in practice
As retailers already well know, customer loyalty and product familiarity are key factors in driving sales. Let’s consider a hypothetical example: a shrewd but longtime customer in the current economy will be comparing prices online and in brick and mortar stores across retailers. Imagine a customer shopping for a kitchen table. She looks at prices online. Then goes to Store A to see the product up close. She gets back into the car and drives to Store B to see if there is anything there that might be a better value or that she likes better. While in Store B, she pulls out her mobile device and goes to the mobile web site of Store A and calls up the product information of the first table. She decides the Store A’s table is superior, and now can complete the transaction right on the phone and either pick up the product or have it delivered. If Store A did not have a mobile site, they would be betting that that customer would actually return to the store, or return home and order the product from the Web site. But the time to close the sale may be lost. When the shopper return home to the internet, she may look for another product before completing the purchase. She may change her mind about buying a table at all. The ability to allow the customer a transactional experience on demand is paramount.
Retailers that scored highest and made the most money online were among the 6% who offered full mobile experiences
This major revenue expanding opportunity is made evident in the study results.
Mobile access can help retailers provide a unique, satisfying e-commerce experience. Customers expect to use their mobile devices to find stores, research products, make purchases and manage their accounts. In anticipation of this market opportunity, retailers should allow customers to access retail product information anytime, from any device. In addition, with the rise of social networking, web-based multimedia, and mobile commerce, retailers can now select from a broad range of technologies to reach customers. Monitoring what innovative companies are doing in retail and in related industries will help retailers adapt best practices to their own circumstances and strategies.
Revenue is driven in multiple areas by mobile commerce channel
Let’s recall our previous scenario and consider it from a slightly different angle. This time, our table buyer goes to her her favorite store, Store A. She sees some tables and is close to deciding on one, but then thinks to herself, “Store B across town sells tables too, but do I want to go all the way over there, or is this one OK?” She is not at home in front of the computer where she could check the retailers Web site and see what products they offered but she figures she still might be able to let her fingers do the walking by trying the retailer’s web site on her phone. Store B has a mobile web site. It loads up quickly and allows her to easily navigate to the product she is looking for. Now our shopper sees a table she likes while standing in a competitors store. Being the shrewd shopper she is, she is not going to buy it before seeing it in real life, so she goes to the store locator feature
on Store B’s mobile site and sees that a new location has opened up not so far away. She drives to Store B, sees the table, likes it and buys it.
Conclusion: Simply by providing the customer access to your web site at their convenience, on the screen they look at the most, their mobile phone, traffic and and revenue in all areas: on the regular web site, on the mobile web site, and in brick and mortar locations will experience a positive lift.
The more your customer can interact with your brand, the more likely and often they are to purchase your products.
This great article appeared a few weeks back in the WSJ about retailers making it easier for customers to shop on their mobile devices and also in brick and mortar stores.
Brick and mortar “giants” such as Wal-Mart and Sears and click and mortar stores like Amazon and Zappos are developing their m-commerce sales channels in various ways.
