Mobile is a primary focus for many retailers, and questions surrounding best practices change as rapidly as the market evolves. How are customers using smartphones to browse and buy? What techniques work best for registration and checkout? How should retailers think about merchandising on smartphones compared with tablets?
Explore in-depth insights and best practices for mobile commerce from U.K. retailers in Shop.org’s Snapshot report.
Mobile adoption is growing globally, and to give U.S. retailers an idea of what’s happening elsewhere, the latest Shop.org Snapshot takes a look at a number of leading retail smartphone sites in the United Kingdom. Text-messaging (SMS) marketing campaigns directed at U.K. consumers began as early as the 1990s, making mobile advertising a mature market at this point. Three out of five U.K. residents currently own a smartphone, and the amount spent on mobile advertising has followed. eMarketer estimates that the U.K. mobile ad market will grow from close to £1 billion ($1.6 billion) this year to £3.7 billion ($5.9 billion) by 2017, by which time it will account for more than one-fifth of total ad spending. And while U.S. mobile sales account for approximately 9 percent of U.S. e-commerce spending, mobile’s share in the U.K. has already reached 23 percent.
With this growth in mind, it’s important to note which mobile retail sites are leading the way in the U.K. TheIMRG-Experian Hitwise Mobile Hot Shops List, published in June, is a “who’s who” of U.K. retailers. Name recognition aside, both sharp focus and skillful execution on cross-channel strategies and site features continue to drive consumer traffic. Some of our observations show a set of retailers focusing on several areas of mobile retailing, including:
Synergistic deployment. Amazon.co.uk and Amazon.com (ranked first and third on the list, respectively) as well as Debenhams (ranked sixth) offer customers both mobile-optimized sites and a range of m-commerce apps for different platforms enhanced by consistent design across both. Offering both options neatly sidesteps the “mobile optimized vs. app” debate, letting customers choose what’s best for them.
Mobile-optimized shopping. Amazon has focused on optimizing elements such as product detail pages and search. The search function is prominently placed at the very top of the page, and is designed for “fat fingers” with legible font size. This retailer has also understood that customers need a persistent shopping cart that follows them across platforms and devices as they discover, research, consider, discuss and ultimately purchase items. As for merchandising, retailer John Lewis (ranked ninth on the IMRG list) shows big “calls to action” on its mobile site to clearly communicate offers, specials and other news.
Mobile-friendly site registration. John Lewis also requires just a user name and password for users to register – a fast and easy process. Retailers need to ensure they are asking only for what’s needed to accomplish registration, knowing that they will collect additional information via other interactions with that customer.
via Shop.org Blog http://blog.shop.org/2013/10/31/shop-org-snapshot-what-retailers-can-learn-from-mobile-commerce-in-the-u-k/
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