Toys"R"Us, eBay Use Mobile to Improve the Customer Experience
In the beginning of his session at the National Retail Federation's Big Show in New York City yesterday, Healey Cypher, head of retail innovation at eBay, asked the audience an intriguing question: Does offline even exist anymore? The days of consumers walking into a store without their smartphone are, for the most part, over. The convergence of channels has already taken place, and mobile is the chief reason why.
In light of this new reality, brands must be able to offer consumers a seamless shopping experience no matter the channel, including in-store. Toys"R"Us has embraced this trend. Noting that more than half of its digital business now comes via mobile devices, Fred Argir, senior vice president and chief digital officer for the toy retailer, joined Cypher on stage to discuss what his company is doing to capture today's connected consumers.
Toys"R"Us recently embarked on a 14-month journey to make mobile a focal point of its business. The channel has become integral to Toys"R"Us’ omnichannel strategy, but it wasn't always that way. Argir noted that the retailer was slow to adapt to mobile, and therefore sought the insight of third-party counsel, including e-commerce consulting firm FitForCommerce, to help it get up to speed.
In addition, Argir and his team — when the mobile initiative started there was one person working full-time on mobile — meet for "Monday morning mobile huddles" to discuss what's evolving in the marketplace. To illustrate how mobile's role has grown in importance at Toys"R"Us, those Monday morning meetings now fill Argir's office, he said.
We took a deep dive into what our customers wanted from their mobile experience, and they told us to keep it simple, Argir said. So that's what we did. For example, Toys"R" used interactive gift-finder kiosks in its stores this past holiday season to help parents find the gifts their children wanted. The immersive digital in-store experience paid off — 95 percent of shoppers who used the kiosk went on to make a purchase.
eBay, while best known for its auctions, is forecasting that mobile will account for $20 million in sales this year; that figure six years ago was zero. To put into perspective how big a factor mobile has become in eBay's growth, Cypher noted that six purchases are made on eBay's mobile site every second.
Some tips that Cypher said have led to eBay's successful mobile efforts, and should become goals for all retailers’ mobile programs, include the following:
- mobile pages that load in less than five seconds;
- prioritizing top features/content/deals at the top of the page;
- limit required data entry on the checkout page; and
- add large, clearly visible product category and search boxes.
In addition to selling via a mobile site, the channel can be used as a tool to complement the in-store shopping experience, Cypher said. He cited Apple as a great example of a retailer that empowers its store associates via mobile devices. The top ways store associates can use mobile devices to improve the in-store experience include as a point-of-sale service (i.e., line busting); to look up inventory availability; leverage assisted selling such as personalized recommendations based on past purchase behavior; and task management.
Consumers are already accessing your mobile site and/or app while in-store, Cypher said. Knowing this is happening, it's incumbent on the brand to make mobile as integral part of the in-store shopping experience as possible.
