The Impact of the New Mobile Shopper

By Jason Wallis

Though digital retail began taking shape in the 90s, the experience has transformed dramatically since the advent of personal technology. The 21^st century brought the rapid adoption of mobile devices, compelling retailers to maintain both traditional and mobile-friendly sites. The evolution to mobile and consumers increasing comfort with online shopping across all platforms has created a number of challenges for enterprise businesses. Here are three challenges that retailers need to address in order to meet the changing needs and demands of their customers:

Challenge No. 1: Consumers are increasingly moving to mobile for purchasing and now demand mobile-optimized experiences. The mobile experience has redefined the human experience. According to Cisco, mobile devices will outnumber the world's population by the end of this year. The new realities of our connected world reveal new consumer habits. IDG reveals in its 2013 mobile survey that 56 percent of smartphone owners and 73 percent of tablet owners use their device to shop online. These numbers are only expected to climb.

Forrester Research forecast that the percentage of traffic and total online orders placed via mobile devices would increase in virtually every market worldwide in 2014, and as a result a growing number of brands will launch new mobile websites and apps in response.

However, because most commerce platforms were built before the advent of our mobile lifelines — and because their derivatives are still largely in use today — both customers and companies suffer the frustrations and fallout of software and hardware systems that fail to adapt to the evolving needs of consumers. As a result, the gap between their current commerce platform and their customers’ desired shopping experience continues to widen.

Retailers must focus on closing this gap and building sites with the user experience in mind. Align to mobile design best practices from the beginning to ensure optimal user and brand experiences, including the following:

remember the universal axiom of "function over form";
focus on performance as the single best way to rise above the noise; and
keep simplicity as a cornerstone and optimize design for performance and usability in all user environments.

Another powerful way to accomplish this is to implement a commerce platform with public APIs. Many APIs are being used to deliver digital content and connect to mobile consumers, regardless of location. An extremely flexible API can easily adapt to new mobile technologies and is a critical element to meeting future consumer needs.

By choosing a commerce platform with a public API, retailers can implement a solution that supports mobile-friendly, responsive websites and the ability to create custom, native mobile shopping experiences that are seamlessly connected. The versatility of APIs allow for site development to be completed a single time and scaled across all devices, allowing enterprises to leverage the ever-growing power of mobile and enable a superior mobile experience.

Challenge No. 2: Consumers demand a seamless experience across channels. Ideally, no barriers should exist for consumers between brick-and-mortar storefronts, mobile commerce and online shopping experiences. Businesses that can't provide consistent product selection, promotions, pricing and service across both the brand and consumer devices will fail to satisfy their customers’ rapidly changing needs. To meet these needs, businesses should seek commerce platforms that offer the following standards:

a single code base for all web experiences;
a single site for all web experiences;
reduction in maintenance risks and release cycle times;
a single, device-agnostic URL structure;
noncompeting search engine optimization format; and
a consistent and optimized experience across all web-enabled touchpoints.

Consumers expect to be recognized when purchasing, regardless of channel, and demand real-time access to product inventories and data — information that empowers them to make informed, unrestricted purchases.

Challenge No. 3: Innovation and agility suffer at the expense of long upgrade cycles. Many businesses suffer a compounded effect when high-maintenance hardware systems limit their ability to respond to today's competitive market. According to a recent Forrester Research report, the way we now think of commerce technology has fundamentally changed due to far-reaching customer touchpoints. Retailers must seek to "innovate and optimize the customer experience … by leveraging an agile commerce platform, one that can be exposed through services, managed in the cloud, and extended to support changing business needs over time."

Forrester continues by asserting that to remain competitive and meet evolving consumer expectations, retailers must enhance their commerce platforms with SaaS options to provide customers with more streamlined support. SaaS commerce platforms remove many of the inevitable complexities and hidden costs when businesses use homegrown or on-premise solutions. With SaaS solutions, businesses can more easily streamline and expand their commerce platform offerings and meet customer needs.

The prolific adoption of mobile technology has dramatically transformed online shopping behaviors. As personal technology continues to evolve and integrate more deeply into our lives, the increasing divide between legacy commerce platforms and consumer desires will continue to widen. But retailers have another choice in SaaS platforms. Businesses poised for success will invest in these innovative solutions that both create efficiencies and build customer connections by tapping into the growth of mobile technology and allow for the rapid response to market conditions.

Jason Wallis is the chief technology officer for Mozu, an enterprise e-commerce solution featuring flexible SaaS architecture.