3 Tips for Mobile Readiness This Holiday Season

With the holidays just around the corner, online retailers must be well-equipped to support and engage the abundance of holiday shoppers. Along with a projected increase in online sales from last year, retailers need to be prepared for an increase in mobile shoppers who are ready to begin their holiday bargain hunting. With this in mind, I've compiled a few tips for companies looking to create a winning mobile engagement strategy this holiday season.

1. Deliver a mobile-optimized shopping experience. Mobile browsing is no longer just supplemental to sales; it's becoming a shopping avenue in its own right. In fact, one in four consumers today engages in online shopping only via mobile. Therefore, it's important that brands make it a priority to provide consumers with a positive mobile experience, especially with the uptick in spending just around the corner.

Consumers seek a one-of-a-kind experience on their mobile devices, different from their PC or in-store. A mobile site needs to be simple and efficient so on-the-go users can find what they need and be on their way. If your mobile site is a replica of your desktop site, you'll likely lose potential mobile customers who are often impatient when it comes to navigating and scrolling a wonky site. Visitors will leave if they can't easily and quickly access the information they're looking for. It's critical that content is highly relevant and easy to navigate so visitors are less tempted to abandon your site and move on to their next activity.

2. Personalize, personalize, personalize. Personalization is key for mobile users because they're less likely to wait, go the extra click or browse extensively in comparison to the in-store or PC counterparts. The first step in personalizing the mobile experience lies in curation. By examining consumer and behavioral data, you gain a better understanding of what your on-the-go customers are looking for. That insight will help you curate the content that needs to be front and center.

Also, by leveraging location-based data, you can offer mobile users localized offers and content that are relevant at the right place and time. If you have a mobile chat solution in place, for example, agents can see exactly where a user is chatting from and offer location-based advice — e.g., a nearby store that carries the specific product they're interested in. Users can get all the information they need in a single interaction without having to leave the mobile app or make a phone call.

It's imperative to remember that like any other shopping venture, mobile should offer convenience and direct relevance to the consumer. Ensure your mobile experience is simple, intuitive and personalized to effectively guide consumers through their purchasing journey. By doing so, you'll see positive impact on customer satisfaction, loyalty, conversions and average order values.

3. Offer choice of channel. In the age of the mobile consumer, it's rather surprising that many retailers don't provide the same choices for customer service on their mobile site and/or app as they do on their desktop site, including the option for live customer service. Consumers expect immediate help in-store and on their PC, so the same should hold true for mobile, especially considering one in three smartphone shoppers will turn to their devices for information in-store rather than asking employees.

One way to close the gap between the in-store and mobile experience is to provide an instant connection to a live agent and product expert from within your mobile site or application. In fact, more and more consumers prefer text-based communications over voice communications. This is because they're often in a noisy store environment or a text message gives them the ability to multitask more easily. Live chat is great, as it also gives consumers the ability to connect with a product expert that they might not have access to in-store.

Mobile devices will account for $41.68 billion in online sales this year. With an increasingly competitive marketplace, the stakes are high, but brands have an enormous opportunity to capitalize on the growth of online shopping and improve holiday readiness across their digital channels if they have the right strategy in place.

Today's consumer is hyperconnected and digitally savvy, with a clear preference when it comes to how they want to interact with brands and how they'd like to receive customer service. To maximize sales this season, you need to ensure you have a solid mobile engagement strategy in place as well as customer service teams that are well-equipped to handle the influx of customers needing timely assistance, especially via their mobile devices.

Grant Miller is the head of mobile at LivePerson, a provider of real-time online customer engagement solutions.