M-Commerce Tips for the Holiday Shopping Season

According to industry research, 91 percent of smartphone or tablet m-commerce consumers expect to make purchases via a mobile app this holiday season, which is a 14 percent increase over last year. Additionally, 96 percent of mobile consumers plan to use apps to research products, demonstrating the important role that mobile apps play during the holiday season. In order for retailers to maximize sales opportunities during the holiday season, it's important that they leverage mobile marketing opportunities.

Here are four practical tips for consumer-friendly mobile marketers on how to sell more during the 2014 holiday season:

1. Cross-selling with mobile: A documented 75 percent of in-app shoppers stated they're extremely loyal once they begin to use a retailer's mobile app to purchase. A critical component of successful consumer communication is cross-selling to an existing customer base. Cross-selling is the art of getting a customer to buy something else along with the product they've already chosen.

This regularly includes product recommendations (e.g., other people who bought this also bought), sharing customer ratings, discounts, or other benefits including free delivery or giveaways. Mobile provides the opportunity to do this in real time and closer to the purchase decision, which improves the likelihood customers will purchase another product. It makes the decision-making process easier for the customer at the right moment.

2. Mobile retargeting: Apple's recently launched mobile operating system arrived with a furtive gift for marketers: the ability to retarget ads based on a user's in-app usage. Apple is promoting the new functionality as effectively solving the mobile cookie problem. Apple isn't alone, however, as other leading players offering mobile retargeting include Facebook, Google and Twitter. Marketers should retarget the 51 percent of consumers that engage with their app but do not complete a purchase by driving them back to the app.

3. Cross-device advertising: Today's consumers study offers at home using a laptop, then deep dive on a tablet when on the move and finally make a decision on their smartphone or, in some cases, in-store after inspecting the product. Statistics show it's rare for a shopper to use just one device in the decision-making process. To address this, retailers need a cross-device approach, mapping the decision-making process and engaging consumers with the optimal advertising mix that maximizes conversion.

4. Holiday-specific keyword ads: Another mobile approach is to collect the best performing keywords from last holiday season, update and reuse those same words for this season's mobile search campaigns. A combination of year, seasonal keywords and local terms usually works best. Some seasonal keywords include "sale," "gifts," "discounts," "free shipping" and "same-day delivery." These keywords work well in getting more clicks during the holiday season. During this time of year, most consumers are looking for bargain discounts, coupons and offers. Adding discounts/free/offers as keywords as well as in ads can result in a huge increase in traffic.

By using these approaches, retailers will learn to address the behaviors of an increasingly mobile consumer base and enhance the power of a mobile app.

Sephi Shapira is the CEO of MassiveImpact, a performance mobile advertising platform.