For many years, the individual customer experience was lost among the milieu of shopping malls, where it became increasingly homogenised. However, marketers have realised that the explosive growth of mobile device adoption is creating an opportunity to build deeper customer relationships and better customer experiences.
It’s not presumptuous to suggest that there’s a good chance you’ll be reading this article from a mobile device. In fact, research by eMarketer estimates that 60.4 per cent of all mobile users in the UK now use smartphones, while tablet ownership has also grown exponentially – an increase of 282 per cent in the last two years alone. This phenomenal rise has been driven, in part, by people’s growing preference for more convenient, instant and accessible methods of consuming goods and services.
20 per cent of all online sales were made on mobile devices in the first quarter of 2013, compared to less than 1 per cent in 2010. It is therefore vital for retail marketers to ensure they can offer a complete, intuitive mobile-presence. Smartphone users now want the option to do everything through the convenience of one device, from browsing, to buying, right through to delivery, so it is paramount that retailers are able to offer this end-to-end experience.
There is evidence to suggest that mobile is becoming increasingly central to many retail brands’ marketing strategies – a recent study by the Internet Advertising Bureau UK (IAB) found that 74 per cent of the top 50 retailers in the UK now have a mobile optimised site. However, the same study found that only 8 per cent have one optimised for tablets. Having such a fundamental element missing from the mobile experience will have a detrimental effect on business.
Failing to provide a holistic mobile experience means retailers risk losing out to rivals that are. Not only does this affect one-off purchases, where a customer will go elsewhere for a more convenient, hassle free experience, it can also affect repeat custom, and ultimately, brand loyalty. It doesn’t take long before customers begin seeking out alternatives that better fit in with their daily habits.
Equipping for mCommerce also has a secondary value for marketers, in that it enables brands to capture valuable information about customers that they would otherwise be missing out on. This data can not only help to identify more about behaviour and spending habits, it also provides a valuable source of information in terms of justifying the value of having a mobile platform in the first place.
And this need not come at great expense, either - Truffleshuffle.com is an example of a small business that has created a mobile-ready experience at low cost. Founder Pat Wood hired a PHP developer to redesign his website after seeing an increase in demand for a mobile-optimised experience. For a cost of only £1,000, and a month’s worth of work, the site was written and taking customer orders. Revenue from mobile visitors to Truffleshuffle’s site has increased three-fold, and these customers are now converting five times more than they were without a mobile site.
Such results make it clear that the mobile experience is now vitally important, not only to the customer, but for future-proofing the business too. If you fail to fully embrace mCommerce as a business, you risk alienating customers, damaging your brand and, ultimately, losing out on revenue.
By Simon Black, CEO of Sagepay.
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