Mobile Commerce

An everything guide on how to be a successful omnichannel retailer in 2014

With an ever-changing technology like mobile, it's important to stay up to date with the trends and take action on the already tried-and-true strategies. Let's take a look at some of these trends and must-do tactics.

With light foot traffic dragging down retail sales over the holidays even as m-commerce continues to grow, retailers are struggling with effectively tapping mobile to bring customers in-store. For the past couple of years, retailers and mobile marketing services providers having been talking up mobile's ability to enable hyperlocal, personalized engagements that can drive nearby customers in-store. However, with many retailers seeing few shoppers in their stores over the holidays, have they just not figured out the right formula yet for leveraging mobile to drive in-store traffic or is the convenience provided by m-commerce trumping the need for real-world transactions? 

The reality is that the mobile web has become a seamless extension of our everyday lives. It was only a matter of time until people began to see shopping (and actual purchasing) as a part of the evolution. Now it's up to online retailers to ensure their mobile shopping experiences keep up with user expectations.

Best Buy is linking together email and mobile with an interactive web-based game as the next big marketing push for its recently revamped loyalty program. The big-box retailer recently sent out an email message thanking its loyalty members for shopping this holiday season. The email also included a link to a mobile and desktop game that encourages consumers to stay plugged into the My Best Buy loyalty program year-round. "When Best Buy launched My Best Buy last year, we promised our members richer experiences and more mobile," said Jeremy Baier, spokesman at Best Buy.

Amazon.com and Apple have topped the list of best mobile retailers in customer service for three years running, according to a new report from ForeSee Results. As mobile and brick-and-mortar retailers strive to find ways to better serve consumers, reports such as this are guideposts. Marketers are looking to Amazon and Apple as mobile's influence continues its upward rise. "The value of a satisfied consumer is huge," said Larry Freed, CEO of ForeSee Results. "Highly satisfied consumers are 76 percent more likely to purchase from that retailer online than dissatisfied consumers."

Misconfigured mobile redirects can result in errors, irrelevant pages and now, as a result of Google's recent algorithm changes, search ranking downgrades. Many brands may find it difficult to correct mobile redirect issues, but identifying and fixing these issues is important to helping pages stay visible in mobile search results and removing critical obstacles blocking the path to more mobile commerce. The following is a list of suggested tips to help retailers correct faulty mobile redirects:

Mobile devices bring together multiple communication channels onto one screen: email, web and the more native push (SMS, rich inbox and MMS). Of these channels, push notifications allow companies to target and communicate with customers based on the abundant criteria that can be gleaned from their devices. The 256-byte brevity of push demands that marketers carefully plan and test the content of each message to gauge its effectiveness in driving customer engagement, retention and conversions. In today's data-rich society, not testing the language in push notifications is essentially a missed opportunity, tantamount to leaving money on the table. 

Starbucks, Sephora and Walgreens are putting mobile and digital at the forefront of their post-holiday campaigns to help drive loyalty with new customers acquired during the holiday shopping season. All three retailers have strong loyalty programs with mobile as a focal point, and the medium is clearly playing a role in how these brands are kickstarting their 2014 marketing initiatives. For example, Starbucks is advertising on Spotify as part of a post-holiday campaign to acquire loyalty members.

Before we officially close out 2013, we wanted to provide a final update on year-end online sales trends from the IBM Digital Analytics Benchmark. The following information is part of our quarterly retail online index, which analyzed online shopping behavior during the preceding three months (10/1/13 through 12/31/13). Overall, fourth quarter online sales were up 10.3 percent year-over-year. Here were some of the key drivers: