At a time when consumers can price-check at home or in-store using a smartphone, is your organisation doing enough to compete in the mobile space? Are you making it easy for your customers to browse and buy on their mobiles?
The latest figures by Kantar Worldpanel ComTech show that by June 2012, more than half of the mobile phone users in the UK will own a smartphone and eleven million consumers will have access to the mobile web.
The new generation of mobile operating systems has brought with it a new breed of consumers, no longer satisfied with simple content and features, but increasingly more comfortable with sharing data and transacting via mobile sites and applications.
However, retailers still don’t seem to be matching consumer appetite for mobile. In fact, a YouGov survey that we commissioned recently shows that less than a quarter of High Street retailers are harnessing the power of mobile, despite consumers becoming increasingly comfortable with the concept of purchasing via their mobile phone. This is quite worrying when you think about the latest ComScore stats which show a 56% growth in smartphone ownership in the UK over the past year and a 163% increase in UK smartphone users accessing online retail sites in the same period.
Google’s UK managing director recently commented that “not having a mobile presence is like not opening stores on a Tuesday” – currently 15 – 20% of searches are coming from mobile devices. The appetite is clearly there, so how can retailers move quickly to meet this demand for mobile?
The right mobile presence for your business
Our mSite and app research on High Street retailers’ mobile presence, which we compared to a previous study we did in October 2010, showed that in the space of a nine month period, there has been a significant shift in retailers’ attitudes. Investment in the mobile channel is now gaining momentum, but it’s only a gradual shift towards mobile adoption. Many brands are stepping up their efforts with mobile marketing strategies, particularly when it comes to targeting alternative platforms to iPhone. However 59% of UK retailers’ mobile marketing is still only compatible with Apple’s iOS.
The focus is understandable. Apple taught retailers that consumers would tolerate bite-sized, easy to use chunks of mobile internet usage. This appears to have left the common solution – mSites – trailing, despite the fact that they offer a chance to optimise for all platforms and capture valuable user data such as telephone numbers and even footfall and purchasing patterns in-store.
For some businesses – those with genuine multi-channel strategies – apps provide an engaging and compelling front end for customers: there is a clear function for the app, and engages the customer into a wider mobile interaction.
Some retailers have gone down the ‘app for app’s sake’ route, which instantly narrows the opportunity they have to engage with customers on a long-term basis. In a competitive market, a robust, multi-channel marketing strategy can help retailers to revolutionise results – attracting new customers and fostering loyalty to generate repeat business. Simply paying lip service to mobile will increasingly alienate a retailer from its customers, as they become increasingly savvy mobile users.
Even some of those who have chosen this route are not making the most of the platform. In much the same way that the first retailers to tackle the internet often did little more than replicate a brochure online, our research has shown that many attempts at apps and mSites are not embracing the very attributes which make mobile a very different, exciting and fluid proposition. The opportunities presented by GPS location services, instant engagement and offers for customers who walk into a store with a phone in their pocket are all under-utilised.
The fact that nearly a quarter of retailers are now waking up to mobile and starting to take action shows that it’s no longer a question of whether retailers are adapting their strategy, but rather whether they are adapting quickly enough.
Don’t get left behind
While retailers appear to be moving slowly towards a mobile strategy, our research demonstrates consumers’ appetite for mobile engagement and transactions is growing at a much faster pace.
However appealing your shopping offers are, long-term brand loyalty is only as strong as your engagement. There is still a long way to go for retailers, especially when it comes to the benefits of couponing or using mobile to the extent that they have harnessed online.
With over four billion mobile phones in the world, including over 1 billion smartphones, the market for mCommerce is huge and still growing. The traditional barriers for browsing, offer redemption and purchasing via a mobile such as lack of speed, functionality, security and data protection are quickly being eradicated as shoppers’ reliance on smartphones increases and improved operating systems make them quick and easier to use on the move.
The mobile platform still offers huge scope for innovation, which can purely be about driving sales or engaging with your audience at a key point in a purchase window – for example, when they are stood in a store looking at a product and deciding whether to buy elsewhere or do comparison checks online for a better price.
Retailers who fail to embrace a comprehensive multichannel marketing strategy that includes intelligence-based mobile strategies will soon find themselves becoming the barrier. Brand loyalty will be eroded as shoppers switch to those retailers who seem to understand their needs and engage them with the right offer, via the right platform, at the right time.
The power of mobile marketing grows with every smartphone sale and, with the predicted rise in ownership, it’s not a question of whether retailers need to adapt their strategy, but whether they are adapting quickly enough.
For the 2ergo report on retailers’ use of mobile, please visit: http://mailshot.2ergo.com/Mobilising-Retail-Report
