Expert: No better time than the present for UK retailers to go mobile
Approximately one in 10 Europeans (12 percent) have used their tablets, smartphones or other mobile devices to browse their favorite retailers and make a purchase – a number that will almost certainly continue to climb, asserts John Sullivan, director of information technology at the Gondola Group.
Speaking on a panel during the Open Mobile Summit in London, Sullivan was quick to stress the importance of offering a mobile shopping experience for customers who want to make purchases through this new technology. While mobile shopping may not be replacing brick-and-mortar or even online sales, it's important to provide shoppers with a multichannel experience to ensure their highest satisfaction.
While the results of going mobile will vary depending on the brand and the audience it's targeting, the benefits could be huge.
"Fifty percent of our traffic is on mobile. The more we give the customer on mobile, the more they use," explained Sullivan, as quoted by Internet Retailer. "You just need to get out there and do some experimentation to find out what your customer wants."
Crafting a mobile experience
That said, mobile technology is relatively new to the market. Each year, Apple is announcing updated products with radically different specifications, not to mention the wide array of differences between the various Android phones. When developing a mobile site or application, retailers need to be willing to experiment. Nothing should be sacred, and merchants should be prepared to scrap parts of their mobile site if they aren't displaying correctly or if customers aren't reacting positively to them.
"Just focus on what the experience needs to be," Ian Cranna, vice president of marketing at Starbucks, added. "See your way through the technology through the customer's eyes and make an experience of those things that are working as opposed to first focusing on the more challenging things that are hard to use."
Howard Gefen, director of worldwide mobile business development, suggests focusing on the core experience. While features such as behavioral-based recommendations may be nice, they shouldn't come at the expense of loading times or other key aspects.
Just having a mobile site may not be enough. Some retailers have begun using mobile devices for other purposes as well. For example, Target recently rolled out Shopkick to its stores nationwide, which enables visitors to collect loyalty points for checking in.
