Mobile Commerce Apps Still Falling Short of Consumer Expectations
Last week, a Forbes contributor posted an infographic created by Cognizant, illustrating how top retailers are adopting mobile apps, but still have work to do, to satisfy their customers.
Cognizant found that 83 percent of top retailers provide at least one mobile offering. With such high adoption, surely retailers must “get” how today’s connected consumer wants to shop? Not exactly. According to Cognizant’s and our own research, many retailer mobile offerings are not living up to consumers’ expectations. Vital features that today’s savvy shoppers want are still missing, like customer support and social media integration, and a compelling use of rich media such as videos and optimized product views.
The good news, marketers, is that your mobile and tablet commerce app can be saved! It may just need a makeover, as our COO and CMO, Sean Ford, discusses in a recent blog post. He explains that even the most successful companies have made missteps along the way to creating game changing and successful products. Ford offers four tips for brands and retailers to follow when creating a new and improved app, whether for smartphones or tablets. Following these steps, and keeping your finger on the pulse of your customers’ mobile shopping expectations, will help drive more engagement and ultimately, increase revenue.
Here are some other interesting pieces of news from last week:
Retail Customer Experience: Survey: Consumers using Pinterest to engage with retailers more than Facebook, Twitter
Never before has social media been so attractive to consumers, literally. According to the 2012 Social and Mobile Commerce Study, a joint research project by Shop.org, comScore and The Partnering Group, the visually appealing social media site Pinterest has become a big player in an even bigger arena, with online U.S. consumers reporting that they already follow an average of 9.3 retail companies on the site, compared to the average 6.9 retailers they follow on Facebook and the 8.5 retailers they track via Twitter. Overall, almost two out of five (38 percent) online consumers follow retailers through one or more social networking sites.
Digiday: Why Pinterest is Online Retail’s New BFF
There’s been a whole lot of talk about Pinterest lately, with brands and retailers alike betting that the platform will live to become an important part of social media marketing. According to ComScore, Pinterest hit 11.7 million unique monthly U.S. visitors in January. The reach is clearly there. And there are some retailers for which the platform now serves as a customer-acquisition tool and a means of driving online sales.“Pinterest brings together people with similar interests,” said Hayley Silver, vp of Bizrate. “Facebook is different in that just because we are friends doesn’t mean we’d be interested in buying the same products. Another unique opportunity [with Pinterest] is the ability to see a product within the context of your own lifestyle.”
Multichannel Merchant: 5 Tips to Elevate Your Mobile Commerce Strategy
A new research report found that 41% of retailers possess a mobile initiative, but many are still hesitant about rolling out a mobile commerce program. Find out how you can elevate your mobile commerce strategy.
ConversionXL: What You Need to Know About Mobile Internet Users and Their Shopping Behavior
80% never leave home without their phones in hand. They do everything on it, including shopping. Whatever your business is, an ever growing chunk of your target customers are using their mobile devices instead of computers to go online. Here’s what you need to know about mobile internet users and their purchasing behavior.
MediaPost: Magazine Print Readership Declines, Digital Grows
Consumer magazines’ print readership declined over the last year, but the losses were partly offset by growth in digital readership, according to GfK MRI, which recently released the second wave of its revised Survey of The American Consumer, amended to include more questions about digital reading. In the period from September 2011-April 2012, the total average print audience of 190 major titles tracked by GfK MRI came to just over 1.2 billion, down 2.7% from 1.24 billion for the same period in 2011. When print and digital editions are considered together, the figure sank 2.6% from just under 1.25 billion to just under 1.22 billion (The GfK MRI figures offer unduplicated estimates of audiences for print and digital editions, but do not include traffic to magazine Web sites).]]>
