Understanding the New Customer Journey
A lot has changed for online shoppers in recent years. The customer journey today has become a multiplatform experience, often including interactions via smartphones, tablets, laptops and desktops - all in the course of one transaction. This is in sharp contrast to the mall walkers of the past and the clunky and often frustrating online purchasing we all endured as the internet grew up. Today's consumer uses every available minute to research, make wish lists and purchase online. This can mean looking at product reviews on mobile devices during the morning commute, updating a wish list at lunch from a desktop or pulling the trigger on some big-ticket items at night from a laptop.
According to a recent infographic produced by Amplience, smartphones brighten the commute to work and dominate online shopping activity between 6:00 a.m. and 9:00 a.m. In fact, 65 percent of consumers start their online shopping journey on their smartphones. Post commute, consumers may continue their path to purchase by doing some comparison shopping on their desktops. Many shoppers like to read reviews and watch product videos during their office lunch hour before purchasing items online. After rushing home and cooking dinner, the consumer's journey continues as he or she kicks back, browses and purchases from a tablet. In general, consumers are more likely to make purchases from tablets and laptops than from smartphones, largely due to the bigger, more comfortable screen size.
We're living in a device-saturated world, and consumers are embracing multiple avenues to get purchasing tasks done quickly and capitalize on pockets of time throughout the day. For consumers, this means greater flexibility and versatility. For retailers, it means ever-increasing challenges with managing content delivery across multiple channels and devices.
Mobile, for example, is clearly gaining ground in the world of e-commerce engagement. In the U.S., Goldman Sachs estimates that mobile commerce will deliver $626 billion in sales in 2018, which will represent nearly half of all global e-commerce. IBM found that mobile commerce was responsible for 22 percent of total Cyber Monday sales and 41 percent of site traffic.
With mobile gaining dominance in the e-commerce space, creating engaging and brand-consistent experiences across devices is important to ensure a smooth path to purchase for mobile shoppers. One way retailers are addressing this is by using adaptive media technology to enable the creation of one website that responds and adapts to all viewing formats.
According to Zendesk, currently only 7 percent of customers believe that companies provide a high-level, seamless and consistent experience across channels. The writing is on the wall: Retailers cannot wait to confront the challenge of the multiscreen journey - it must start today.
The consumer journey has changed significantly in recent years, and the only way for retailers to address this issue and meet the challenges of catering to the new shopper is by using technology that makes it possible. Retailers who invest in 21st century retail technology like adaptive media will be able to cater to consumers across any device, which is critical for success in the brave new world of retail.
Rory Dennis is the chief marketing officer at Amplience, a SaaS-based platform that enables brands to produce digital campaign and product media.
Rory Dennis, Co-Founder & GM, North America, Amplience
Rory co-founded Amplience and is GM of Amplience in the United States, developing Amplience's presence in North America. Rory previously worked as Business Development Manager for O2 Telefonica's Interactive Media Team.
