QVC Tops Mobile Mystery Shopping Index

With smartphone adoption rates growing by the day, retailers have begun to invest a significant amount of time and money into developing shopper-friendly mobile websites and apps. According to the Custora E-Commerce Pulse Mobile Report, mobile e-commerce sales will likely reach $50 billion in 2014. This represents a 1,875 percent growth from four years ago. Furthermore, more than a third (36.9 percent) of visits to e-commerce sites now come from mobile devices (phones and tablets). Yet mobile still lags when it comes to conversion rate, with desktop conversion rates at 4.3 percent and mobile at 1.4 percent (between January 2013 through March 2014).

the e-tailing group's fifth annual Mobile Mystery Shopping Index sought to identify the retailers that are excelling at giving consumers the best mobile shopping experience. In the second quarter of this year, the e-tailing group benchmarked the mobile consumer experience from information gathering through purchasing and customer support. Both iOS and Android devices were used to best reflect current usage patterns.

Members of the e-tailing group team explored 50 retailers’ mobile sites, going through the checkout process up to the point of order submission. The company evaluated the on-site user experience on 174 metrics, looking at six top tasks consumers are likely to perform — connect to a store, visit mobile homepage and category page, search for a product, research a product, buy a product, and seek customer service. The websites were scored on a 100-point scale based on an assessment of metrics on five key pages (homepage, category page, search results page, product page, shopping cart page), presence and execution of vital merchandising tactics, and accessible customer service. Here's a sampling of the results:

• QVC took the top spot with an overall score of 84.17. The rest of the top five included eBags (83.33), Foot Locker (83.00), American Eagle Outfitters (82.75) and The Men's Wearhouse (81.75).
• The average score of the 50 mobile sites shopped was 71.60.
• American Eagle Outfitters and Sephora both scored over 80 the last two years, the only companies to accomplish that feat.
• The shopping cart page is where retailers’ mobile sites struggle most. The average score for the 50 sites on that page was 3.35 out of a possible 5.0.

Does your company have a mobile website or app? What is its primary function? Sales driver? Research tool? Something else? Let us know how your company is using mobile by posting a comment below.