Archive for the ‘Retail’ Category

Google Seeks Billions by Boosting Mobile Internet Speeds

Posted: April 19, 2012 in Industry News, Information communications technology, Internet, M-Commerce, Mobile Industry News, Mobile Internet, Mobile Technology, Retail, Telecommunications
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Posted By } Olga Kharif

Google is tweaking its mobile browser and working with other companies on changing the way basic Internet technologies work. Photographer: SeongJoon Cho/Bloomberg

Like many users of mobile devices, Arvind Jain is annoyed by how long it takes Web pages to load over cellular connections.

The Google Inc. (GOOG) (GOOG) engineering director is continually monitoring Internet-access rates — from hotels, offices and airport lounges around the world — looking for ways to speed things up. Jain’s mission: get websites to load over mobile- phone networks twice as quickly as they do now. Today’s times are typically 9.2 seconds in the U.S.

The goal is part of a companywide initiative for Google, the world’s biggest search-engine provider, which aims to use faster mobile Internet access to unlock billions of dollars in additional e-commerce and online advertising. When people are waiting for pages to load, they aren’t shopping or viewing ads. That’s hampering everyone from giant Internet companies to local businesses trying to reach customers.

“There’s a clear correlation between speed and the success of your online business,” Jain said.

What makes a mobile Web connection slow? In some cases, it’s the carriers’ network — say, if users can’t get 3G or 4G service on their phones. Often, though, it’s because the Web page wasn’t designed to load quickly on a wireless device. The site may have high-resolution pictures or data-intensive effects. Beyond that, Internet protocols and software aren’t always optimized for mobile connections, which can lose some of the data they transmit.

Website Abandonment

An especially long delay can cause consumers to give up on purchases altogether, and the risk is more acute on mobile phones than with desktop computers. Twice as many mobile-phone users abandon a website for reasons such as sluggishness than their desktop counterparts, according to Forrester Research Inc. (FORR) (FORR)That results in lost revenue for online sellers, as well as companies like Google, the U.S. leader in mobile advertising.

To fix the problem, Google is tweaking its mobile browser and working with other companies on changing the way basic Internet technologies work. It’s also rolling out tools that help website owners see the connection between their sites’ performance and sales. That can prod businesses to spend the money needed to speed up their services.

Faster mobile Web loads could increase mobile-commerce sales in the U.S. by 10 percent, or about $600 million a year, said Sucharita Mulpuru, an analyst at Forrester. They also could help online commerce in general: Almost half of mobile users are unlikely to return to a website at all if they had trouble accessing it from their phone, a 2011 study by Equation Research found.

Hurting Business

“There’s a big business impact to these kind of struggles,” said Geoff Galat, vice president of worldwide marketing at Tealeaf Technology Inc., a provider of website- improvement software.

Faster mobile Web speeds also translate into additional mobile-ad revenue. A 30 percent improvement in mobile Internet’s speed could lead to a 15 percent rise in ad sales, said Trevor Healy, chief executive officer of mobile-ad provider Amobee Inc. U.S. mobile-advertising spending will reach $2.61 billion this year, up from $1.45 billion in 2011, according to EMarketer Inc.

While carriers adopting 4G networks have helped speed up the mobile Internet, those upgrades won’t have the biggest impact on performance, said Craig Mathias, founder of consulting firm Farpoint Group in Ashland, Massachusetts. Improvements to servers, browsers and other Internet software are even more important, he said.

Catching up to Desktops

Google has plenty of company in trying to accelerate mobile connections. Akamai Technologies Inc. (AKAM) (AKAM), Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) (MSFT), Mozilla and a slew of startups are all focused on optimizing Web performance.

The effort could be help mobile speeds catch up with desktop rates by 2014, said Lelah Manz, chief strategist for e- commerce at Akamai. For now, wired users are far ahead. They haven’t had to deal with nine-second downloads since at least 2001, according to Akamai.

“Mobile has to catch up,” Manz said. “Your shoppers are more distracted on a mobile device, and the performance is more important. This realization has just started to hit in the last six to nine months.”

To get there, Google has been tweaking its Chrome Web browser for Android, the most popular smartphone operating system. The software will rely more heavily on artificial intelligence in predicting what Web address someone wants to visit — and then start loading the page while the user is still typing. That feature is currently available in a beta-test form, Jain said.

Web Protocols

Google also is pushing for revisions to Internet protocols, the decades-old rules that govern the way the Web functions. The changes would better handle the quirks of modern mobile networks, such as their propensity to occasionally lose data en route. A revision called TCP PRR, for example, will deploy a new algorithm that accounts for data losses and network congestion.

Another adjustment, called TCP Fast Open, will eliminate the need to synchronize the phone and the server before transmitting the data. Once the revision is adopted, synchronization will happen at the same time as the transfer of data from a website.

Google recently updated its Google Analytics feature to let Web publishers overlay the speed of their site with business measurements, such as revenue per day. That helps them see the correlation and figure out return on investment.

Akamai, meanwhile, is working with Ericsson AB (ERICB), the world’s largest maker of wireless networks, to develop special technology that carriers can use to provide priority Web access to users of retail websites, Manz said. The technology will become available in the U.S. in 2013, she said.

Fewer Requests

In March, Akamai released the Aqua Mobile Accelerator, a technology that sends multiple packets over the mobile network at the same time, cutting down on the number of repeat requests.

Startups are plunging into mobile Web optimization as well. For the past two months, CloudFlare Inc. has been testing a feature called Polish, which automatically goes through images on websites and ensures they are compressed correctly. Mobile- app maker Onavo Mobile Ltd., makes sure images only load when users scroll down to the part of the Web page where the pictures would be visible.

For retailers, such technical advances can’t come soon enough. Said Jonathan Johnson, president of retailer Overstock.com Inc., a Web discounter based in Salt Lake City: “The longer purchasers have to wait, the more frustrated they get, and the more likely they are to leave the site.”

Via: http://www.businessweek.com/news/2012-04-19/google-seeks-billions-by-boosting-mobile-internet-speeds#p1

To contact the reporter on this story: Olga Kharif in Portland, Oregon, at okharif@bloomberg.net.

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Thomas Giles at tgiles5@bloomberg.net

Apple Snubs The iAd & My Personal View on the Mobile Ad Market

Posted: June 7, 2011 in Developers, Digital Display Advertising, Digital Marketing, Digital Trends, Display advertising, E-Commerce, Industry News, Information communications technology, M-Commerce, Media & Entertainment, Mobile Ad Networks, Mobile Advertising, Mobile Conference, Mobile Developers, Mobile Handsets, Mobile Industry News, Mobile Internet, Mobile Platforms, Mobile Technology, Retail, Smartphones, Technology, Telecommunications, Wireless Technologies
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My Comments on the below:

It is very interesting that Apple have not mentioned iAD at the World Developer conference day in San Francisco yesterday as highlighted by Dan Frommer of Business Insider.  Especially, as they were so keen to raise the bar in the mobile ad industry when they announced its release last year. That said the mobile ad industry is moving at such a fast rate and I no doubt Apple are fine tuning their product from the learnings they would have taken to-date.

We are seeing first hand the mobile ad-market exploding into the desk of most Marketers & Media Planners and Buyers. This is a subject that has to be on the list rather than off the list.  There are dynamic shifts across regions in the type of advertisement whether it is brands, content companies or media owners all wanting to capitalise on the opportunity.

Mobile content companies that where present in the early stages are finding it hard to convert in the matured markets such as US and Western Europe.  I believe this is due to user desirability and general maturity of the market.  The old content subscription services are not so sought in markets with strong smartphone penetration.  As the mobile web and apps that are enabled by smartphones offer content that is ‘King’.  Whereas, in emerging markets like LATAM, ASIA, Indonesia with heavy feature phone penetration content is scarce and usability limited. Hence, the desire is still high for content companies to service this void.

Western society is dominated by the big Fortune 100 advertisers whether it is premium advertising with super sexy rich media and the explosion of HTML5 or more simple direct response campaigns pushing for an acquisition/sale of some sort.

We are starting to see the big brands shift some ad-spend into the emerging markets from certain sectors such as, Travel, Finance, Technology, Health and Automotive but this is still a small portion of the total ad spend in those markets that are dominated by content companies.  The end user is still considered as someone with limited or no disposable income unlike its more matured Western Societies. This is changing thanks to technology and many other factors and presents a huge opportunity for M-Commerce as this will in many emerging markets leapfrog e-commerce.

This is when everything changes…

When we consider there are 3 billion people in the world that are not even connected to online and that these 3 billion people in the next five years will become connected via cheaper and still sophisticated smartphones it presents a world of opportunity and excitement.  This is why I work in the most exciting and fastest growing industry of all time.

Posted By ] Dan Frommer

Remember Apple’s iAd? Apple might not, either.

A year after being shown off as a “tentpole” feature of iPhone software, Apple’s mobile advertising business didn’t earn a single mention today, as execs previewed a new version of iOS at the company’s Worldwide Developers Conference in San Francisco.

Apple CEO Steve Jobs even took the opportunity to trash ads.

While discussing Apple’s free, new iCloud email service, he took an apparent jab at Gmail, Yahoo Mail, and the others, which stuff ads in their free email services.

“No ads,” he boasted. ”We build products that we want for ourselves, too, and we just don’t want ads.”

That’s obviously not the same thing as if Jobs were to say “we don’t like iAds” or “iAds stink.”

But it seems to underscore the awkwardness of Apple — a product-focused hardware and software company — trying to become an advertising company. (Much more about that here.)

Maybe there just weren’t any new iAd features to show off today. Apple certainly had a lot of more interesting new stuff to show off. But there wasn’t even a “hey, look how many ads we’re delivering every day” or “wow, we have all these amazing advertisers!” message. Or anything.

Via: http://www.businessinsider.com/apple-snubs-the-iad-2011-6#ixzz1OZxRyZFl

Visa Announces an E-Wallet for Mobile, E-Commerce, and POS Transactions

Posted: May 12, 2011 in E-Commerce, Financial Services, Industry News, Information communications technology, M-Commerce, Mobile Industry News, Mobile Technology, Retail, Technology, Telecommunications
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'V'

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Visa Inc. announced on Wednesday a digital wallet aimed at increasing its share of transactions in mobile payments, e-commerce, and at the point-of-sale.

The digital wallet will store all the payment cards in a consumer’s wallet, including non-Visa branded cards, Jim McCarthy, Visa’s head of global products said during a press conference announcing the product. Consumers will be able to use the wallet to make mobile commerce and e-commerce purchases and purchases at the physical point-of-sale.

By enabling the wallet to be used for m-commerce and e-commerce, Visa expects it will be able to increase its volume in these lucrative and fast- growing market segments. Online retail sales totaled $38 billion during the first quarter of 2011, up 12% over the same period a year ago, according to Web-measurement firm comScore Inc.

M-commerce sales, excluding travel, were projected to reach $3.4 billion in 2010, up from $1.4 billion in 2009 and $396.3 million in 2008, according to the latest figures from ABI Research. Travel-related mobile purchases were expected add another $1.5 billion in 2010.

“The days of entering a 16-digit card number, an expiration date, and CVV2 code to make mobile or e-commerce transactions are over,” McCarthy said during the press conference. “We expect this digital wallet to have an impact in countries where mobile use is high and card usage is low.”

With the announcement, Visa joins a parade of payments players that have recently chosen to focus on e-wallets, particularly for mobile commerce. Isis, a mobile-payments joint venture formed by the major wireless carriers, recently said it isabandoning an ambition to form a rival merchant network in favor of developing a digital wallet. And Visa rival PayPal Inc. took the occasion of the announcement to underscore its 13-year experience with wallets. “More than 98 million people around the world have already trusted us with their digital wallets,” the company said in a statement released on Wednesday.

Consumers can load the Visa wallet, which is expected to become available by fall, onto their phone and select the payment option they want to use by channel, such as their debit card for m-commerce purchases and their credit card for e-commerce purchases. Visa executives, however, did not specifically describe the technology behind the wallet. That vagueness has prompted speculation among payment experts about whether Visa is planning to attach near field communication chips (NFC) to a mobile phone to hold the wallet.

Visa has tested NFC technology in previous digital-wallet trials. Other potential technologies that can be used include applications that can be loaded onto a mobile phone and a cloud-computing-based digital wallet that resides on a remote secure server and can be accessed by the consumer from a Web-enabled smart phone.

Although Visa did not immediately respond to questions from Digital Transactions News, Visa chairman and chief executive Joe Saunders said during the press conference that if NFC technology were needed to make the wallet work, Visa has the technology, but would need to have merchants deploy more NFC terminals.

“If Visa is going to rely on NFC technology as they have in the past, all they are doing is building a walled garden that supports their current infrastructure,” says Richard Crone, chief executive of Crone Consulting, LLC. “Right now no major merchant supports NFC technology and many are looking to leapfrog it with mobile technology that allows them to control the payment options, much the way Starbucks has done with its mobile application.” Starbucks Coffee Co. has installed a bar-code-reading mobile-payments system in all of its U.S. company-owned stores that allows customers to tap proprietary, prepaid Starbucks accounts to pay.

Several large U.S. and international banks are working with Visa to develop the wallet, including US Bancorp, PNC Financial Services, Regions Financial, BB&T Corp, Toronto Dominion’s TD Bank, and the U.S. arm of Barclays PLC. Visa did not say whether these banks are supporting the wallet as issuers, acquirers, or both.

Other potential revenue opportunities identified by Visa include fees from third-party application developers looking to stake out a place in the wallet, such as person-to-person payment applications, and fees from merchants for sending consumers real-time messages on their phones.

“Right now consumers paying with a Visa or other general-purpose cards are anonymous to merchants, and what merchants want to be able to do is contact them,” says Crone.

Other expansion opportunities include working with providers of closed-loop mobile-payment systems. “A lot of closed-loop mobile payment networks realize they can’t expand without someone like Visa,” said Saunders. “We don’t always initiate these conversations.”

Saunders declined to elaborate further on the subject.

McCarthy said Visa’s acquisitions of PlaySpan, a virtual goods monetization platform, and fraud-solutions provider CyberSource Corp. can extend the company’s presence in digital and mobile commerce. If Visa begins marketing PlaySpan in the m-commerce and e-commerce space, it is possible the company may become the merchant of record for PlaySpan transactions in some instances, Saunders acknowledged.

“Not everyone is going to like the idea of Visa as the merchant of record, but changes in the payment landscape are shifting the role of some of the players,” says Todd Ablowitz, president of consultancy Double Diamond Group. “It would certainly be an aggressive move on their part.”

Via: http://www.digitaltransactions.net/news/story/3041

Shoes.com: 85pc of purchases come from mobile Web, not apps

Posted: May 11, 2011 in Digital Marketing, Digital Trends, E-Commerce, Industry News, Information communications technology, Internet, M-Commerce, Media & Entertainment, Mobile Applications, Mobile Industry News, Mobile Internet, Mobile Platforms, Mobile Search, Mobile Technology, Multichannel Marketing, Online, Publishing, Publishing Industry, Retail, Search, Smartphones, Strategy and Planning, Technology, Telecommunications
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My Comments on the below:

I am a bit late finding this article but there you go.  I find the stats really interesting.  Despite the fact they offer shoes for all, I am guessing here that their main user base is made up of Women.  I can instantly relate to their experience.  If I look at my partner who since purchasing her an android phone (6 months ago), who by the way is a kind of techno-phoebe, has moved from a 0 to a 10 user of the mobile internet (0 being not at all and 10 being everyday more than once).  However, despite this amazing change of her use of phones not once has she been bothered by apps.  This is not because she is not aware or has not tried them but she is used to searching for content when she wants.  She finds it easy.  She already knows which sites she has interest in and what sites she would buy clothes/shoes and whatever other flavour.  It is interesting as her peers also share the same thought process, yet their male counterparts and very engrossed into both mobile internet & apps.  In fact the more I think about it especially apps that help them not have to think for themselves or games of course!  Anyhow, before I digress, this supports the experience shoes.com has described.  As women, being the main demographic (again this is an assumption) of shoes.com, they are comfortable and familiar with SEARCH (and aren’t we all, no matter our gender) hence making more purchases via the mobile site than apps.  Therefore, as long as the e-commerce site is mobile optimised and the URL re-directs are in place then their customers will happily discover and purchase via the mobile internet site (as we in the industry call m-commerce, a transaction made via the mobile device).

In the early adoption days of mobile internet we saw that many publisher, media owners and e-commerce sites were receiving anywhere up to 5% of their users online coming from a mobile device.  Whilst with one hand this was positive news, with the other it was bad. As the sites that were not optimised for mobile you can start to work out the potential loss of revenues and/or damage to the brand/media owner by delivering a poor user experience and/or no real payment flow.  Traditional publishers and media owners quickly woke up when they saw these stats.  However, the retail industry was very slow to react.  It wasn’t until Steve Jobs created the iPhone and apps that they retail sector started to take the space semi-seriously.  It is great to see now how retailers or e-commerce sites are starting to understand and experience this space better and as the article suggests ‘not just jumping on the app-bandwagon’.

Posted By ] Rimma Kats

Shoes.com's mobile site

SAN FRANCISCO – A Brown Shoes Co. exec at the Mobile Shopping Summit said that 85 percent of mobile purchases come from the shoes.com mobile site and not its applications, proving that retailers should focus on having a Web presence before jumping on the app bandwagon.

Panelists during the “Mobile Roadmap Part I: Key Evaluation Criteria For Developing Your Initial Mobile Platform – The Keys To Mobile Merchandizing” session discussed the challenges and success their companies face with mobile. The panel was moderated by Marci Troutman, CEO of Sitminis, Atlanta.

“We had a strong ecommerce platform,” said Pete Hogan, vice president of ecommerce at Brown Shoe Co., St. Louis. “We were seeing a lot of agencies contact us about mobile and there were few players in the game two years ago.

“Eighty-five percent of our mobile sales come from the mobile Web and not apps,” he said.

Future of mobile
According to Mr. Hogan, the company’s long-term mobile strategy will involve the use of HTML5 to provide a richer experience to consumers on their mobile devices.

For companies that are looking to develop mobile sites or apps, it is important to keep the consumer in mind and try to make the overall mobile commerce experience as seamless as possible.

“Think about your business and how many times people touch your business,” Mr. Hogan said. “If you’re Starbucks then it’s daily, if you’re McDonalds it’s weekly.

“If our customer is a registered customer, we wanted to make sure we auto filled their shipping information,” he said. “That’s where you help them save time.”

A majority of consumers who download applications to their mobile devices do not use most of them.

A mobile site is an ideal tool to capture that consumer at the point-of-sale, per the panelists.

However, companies wanting to enter the application space should make sure that their apps provide a different experience than the mobile site. A lot of the time, mobile apps are geared towards loyalists, pushing deals and alerts to them daily.

There needs to be an incentive for consumers to click on that app icon when they want to shop instead of going to the company’s mobile site.

The mobile site, on the other hand, is an access point for existing and potential customers and should be treated with that in mind.

Brown Shoe first developed a mobile site and then an iPhone application.

Currently, the company has three iPhone applications, three mobile-optimized sites and three Android apps.

According to Mr. Hogan, the company’s mobile site mimics its ecommerce site and now features personalized recommendations and ratings.

“We tried to add most of the bells and whistles,” Mr. Hogan said. “However, there are still a few missing things.

“Tracking is also important – we can see when customers are coming to our mobile properties,” he said. “The ROI is trackable.”

Mobile extension
Dale Monson, senior vice president of operations at The Sportsman’s Guide, said that the company is currently working on a second version of its mobile site.

Although the company has a mobile presence, Mr. Monson said that it has not invested in marketing efforts to promote its applications.

“When we launched our iPhone app, we wanted to make sure we were in the market,” Mr. Monson said. “The main challenge we had was a lot of items on our Web site and it’s difficult to push that into the mobile and have consumers shop easily.

“However, we have not had a good marketing program yet to push the downloads,” he said. “We have not invested in marketing efforts for our apps.”

Via: http://www.mobilecommercedaily.com/2011/04/28/shoes-com-85pc-of-purchases-come-from-mobile-web-not-apps

Rimma Kats is staff reporter on Mobile Commerce Daily and Mobile Marketer. Reach her at rimma@mobilemarketer.com.

On the Call: MasterCard CEO on mobile payments

Posted: May 4, 2011 in Financial Services, Industry News, Information communications technology, M-Commerce, Retail
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MasterCard logo used on cards 1990 to present.

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PURCHASE, N.Y.

Electronics payment processors like MasterCard Inc. and Visa Inc. are trying to adapt to new technologies for making purchases. That includes the use of mobile devices, including smartphones that enable “contactless” payments just by flashing a phone at an electronic scanner.

One obstacle to adoption of the technologies is the small number of electronic terminals that retailers have installed to accept such payments.

After announcing the company’s first-quarter earnings on Tuesday, MasterCard President and CEO Ajay Banga was asked by Wells Fargo analyst Timothy Willi about his expectations for mobile payments technology. Banga said several obstacles remain before the technology can become widely used, especially in the world’s developing economies.

QUESTION: “How rapidly do you expect merchants in emerging markets will install terminals?”

ANSWER: “There are two angles to this. One angle is in the emerging markets, given the current absence of terminals that would accept something to do with a mobile phone, I’m not sure that the mobile payment ecosystem in those markets will develop the same way as it might in a somewhat more advantaged country that has better terminalization in place.

“Mind you, having said that, contact terminalization is still relatively small, even in the United States and in developed countries.

“But, you know, whether mobile payments develop … as a contact-based system, or an SMS-based money movement system, or as a true mobile commerce-enabled system, with the rapid deployment of smartphones in the world, I think some version of all three will begin to develop. What we’re trying to do is to place bets in all three, and to be partners with institutions — banks and phone companies and merchants — in all three spaces.”

But Banga said many obstacles are preventing widespread adoption:

“The cost of those terminals needs to become somewhat cheaper. The fact that if you could find intelligent ways to make that terminal more easy for a small merchant to adapt to, that would help us as well. There’s a lot of work to be done in this ecosystem yet.”

He closed by saying he expects “a lot of energy” will be devoted to these technologies. Be he was cautious about how fast it will play out: “I don’t know that it will happen in six months or one year compared to two years or three years. I don’t know the answer to that yet.”

Via: http://www.businessweek.com/ap/financialnews/D9N041RG0.htm

UK retailers aren’t ready for mobile commerce: survey

Posted: April 14, 2011 in Digital Trends, E-Commerce, Industry News, M-Commerce, Mobile Industry News, Multichannel Marketing, Online, Retail
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Posted by ] 14 April 2011 11:23am by Graham Charlton

Though the majority of retailers are convinced that mobile commerce will eventually become as popular as e-commerce, just 16% have a strategy in place, and 28% have no plans to implement one.

The findings are based on a Vanson Bourne survey of 100 marketing and IT directors at UK retailers, and 1,000 consumers.

Here’s a few highlights from the study…

Retailers’ attitudes to mobile commerce

The timescales vary, but 83% believe mobile commerce will be as popular as e-commerce within five years, though the 6% who think it already is perhaps need to check some recent stats. Popularity is growing, but it’s not near e-commerce just yet.

Mobile commerce and retailers

Compared to US firms such as eBay and Amazon, many UK retailers have been relatively slow to react to the potential of mobile commerce, but that has changed over the past 12 months.

Whereas a year ago, only a small number of UK retailers had some sort of m-commerce offering, big names like Tesco, M&S and John Lewis have a successful mobile presence.

With these examples, and a number of success stories, from Debenhams, Ocado and others, it’s likely that more retailers will follow suit.

16% of retailers have a mobile commerce strategy fully in place at the moment, a further 18% have implemented some aspects, while 8% have yet to implement it.

So 42% have a strategy at various stages of development, and a further 30% plan to develop an m-commerce site or app at some point. Clearly, the 28% with no plans remain to be convinced.

A mobile retail site doesn’t have to cost the earth, and it can provide an opportunity for smaller retailers to compete with big guys. For example, retro t-shirt and gifts site TruffleShuffle developed a mobile website for a just a few hundred pounds.

I asked Pat Wood of TruffleShuffle how the mobile site had worked, and the early results are very promising. Conversion rates are relatively low, but have jumped from 0.32% in Q1 2010 to 0.46% in Q1 2011.

While in Q1 last year, mobile sales accounted for just 0.3% of turnover, in the first quarter this year, this figure was 3.95%. Considering that the site was implemented at a low cost, and just by following some basic mobile commerce best practice guidelines, it proves the value of a mobile strategy.

The debate over whether retailers should develop a mobile site or app is an interesting one, and it seems the retailers in this study are split more or less down the middle on this issue.

Slightly more (45%) feel the apps are the most important mobile channel for them, an 40% think mobile sites:

I think a mobile site is perhaps the best first step in a mobile commerce strategy, as they can appeal to the broadest possible customer base, though there are still things that apps can do better, such as barcode scanning.

Whether retailers have a mobile commerce strategy in place or not, more and more customers are buying smartphones, and many of those will be looking to make purchases.

There is still an opportunity for retailers to launch mobile retail sites and apps, and to gain a head start on competitors in this channel.

Via: http://econsultancy.com/uk/blog/7418-uk-retailers-aren-t-ready-for-mobile-commerce-survey?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter

Mobile commerce: 25 essential tips

Posted: March 18, 2011 in E-Commerce, M-Commerce, Multichannel Marketing, Retail, User Experience & Usability
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Posted By ] 17 March 2011 12:53pm by Graham Charlton

Mobile commerce is continuing to grow, and there are now plenty of compelling reasons why retailers should sell via mobile.

There are more barriers than in traditional e-commerce, such as smaller screens, variable connections speeds, so if retailers are going to make mobile commerce work, then user experience is all important.

With this in mind I’ve compiled 25 tips to help maximise conversions from mobile commerce…

Start with a mobile site

There are some great mobile commerce apps around, but a mobile site offers more advantages to retailers.

A mobile site can appeal to customers across a variety of phones, it can attract the mobile searcher rather than relying on customers seeking out and downloading an app.

Having a mobile site allows you to benefit from links, and makes it easier for people to share URLs of product pages. There are other reasons too: the growth of Android, the increased sophistication of mobile sites and more…

If you do opt for an app, provide the wow factor

Plenty of major retailers opted for an app over the last couple of years, and this was often based on stats showing a high percentage of mobile visits from iPhones.

It can be the case that apps are intended for increasing engagement with existing customers, while a mobile site is there to appeal to new and old.

If retailers opt for an app, providing that wow factor can really help your app to stand out, by allowing customers to do things that aren’t so easy via the mobile web.

For example, the Debenhams app contains a barcode scanner, which makes for a great price comparison tool, but also allows for the use of QR codes.

Sccope barcode scanner

Redirect mobile searchers to the mobile version of your site

Unless they already have your mobile site’s URL bookmarked, mobile users will come to your site through via search. Redirecting users to the mobile optimised version make it much easier for them.

Provide a prominent search box

The site search box offers a useful shortcut for mobile users. If they know what they want, then a clear search box allows them to go straight there.

Site search can be more significant on mobile sites and apps, where browsing can be time consuming.

Add autosuggest

Entering search terms via mobile can be a fiddly business, and users will make mistakes. Any tools that can help them correct these mistakes easily will reduce potential frustration for customers.

Providing suggestions as users type. or suggesting alternatives on search results pages can solve the problem.

Provide the same range of stock as the main site

Users expect to be able to access the same range of products from their mobiles as they would from their laptops and PCs.

Don’t make registration compulsory

Barriers to purchase should be avoided in mobile commerce, as every extra step means more time and more hassle for users.

Making users register before checkout means that they have at least three or four more fields to fill in, when much of the information will be asked during the payment process anyway.

Make it nice and easy for existing users to make a purchase

This is a big part of the reason why both Amazon and eBay have such impressive mobile sales figures.

One you have a login, then actually making a purchase just takes a couple of clicks. In the case of Amazon, it already has my payment details, while for eBay I just have to enter my PayPal username and password.

There is no need to enter address and credit card details, just to confirm the information already stored via your account.

While not every e-commerce site saves customer payment details, those that do are better placed to attract repeat business from mobile users.

Offer alternative payment methods

Following on from the previous point, the addition of PayPal and alternative payment methods such as Google Checkout can help in two ways.

  • These payment options can help to reassure customers that are concerned about entering their card details via mobile.
  • Since PayPal stores customers’ address as well as payment details, the payment process is reduced to entering the username and password.

Good product filters are a must

If users expect to see the same range of products on mobile sites and apps as are available on their desktop counterparts, then they need to be able to filter and sort effectively so that browsing is made easier.

Lack of effective filtering options can make for a very poor user experience on mobile, making more work for the user.

For example, while the HMV iPhone app is otherwise well designed, the lack of filters is a letdown. For example, in the music section, there are thousands of CDs on offer, but no way at all of narrowing that search:

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What HMV should have done is to provide multiple filters, such as music genre, customer review rating, date of release etc so that shoppers could reduce the number of items to look through to a more manageable number.

Photos need to be used effectively

Just because users are working with a smaller screen, it doesn’t mean the basic stock photos will do.

People still need to make an informed decision about a purchase, and photos are an effective method of answering customer queries about a product.

In the example from Schuh shown below, users can see the trainers from various angles to get a great idea of what they look like.

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Show delivery details on product pages

People want to know how much delivery costs, yet many of the mobile sites and apps I have reviewed neglect to add this information.

This means that users have to start the checkout process to find out this information.

Keep page loads to a minimum

Mobile devices and websites are getting better, but retailers developing mobile commerce sites still need to account for the fact that users may have variable connection speeds.

With a slow connection, every extra page load or refresh means more time spent waiting, and more frustration.

There is a balance to be struck here: while users want a mobile experience that is close to the main website, they also want a simple site that works quickly (they want it both ways).

Keeping the number of steps involved in selecting and paying for products to a minimum is important, as well as keeping page sizes down.

Don’t send users to non-mobile pages

Some otherwise decent mobile apps and sites have spoiled the user experience by sending shoppers to pages which haven’t been optimised for mobiles.

If you are going to design a mobile site or app, make sure that at all of the pages provide the same user experience.

For example, while users can find their local store, browse the product range and add items to their basket on the Next iPhone app, users are sent to a checkout that hasn’t been optimised for mobiles.

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If a user has shown an intent to purchase by entering the checkout process, it is foolish to risk that sale with a non-mobile checkout.

Offer phone contact alternatives

However well designed a mobile commerce site may be, there will often be some customers who want to seek reassurance about a purchase, or who may prefer to complete the transaction by phone.

Since they are on the phone anyway, providing a clear contact number means customers may get in touch rather than abandon the purchase.

Get listed on mobile comparison services

Even if you don’t have a mobile site, you can at least attract some sales from mobile users via mobile comparison services such as Sccope.

However, if you are serious about converting traffic from comparison sites, then a mobile optimised site is essential.

Provide store locators

Stats on mobile commerce usage suggest that store locator tools are amongst the most popular pages on sites and apps for users.

They are a great way to get customers into the store and provide information about stores and directions. Even better if used alongside a reserve and collect option, as with the Argos app.

Provide alternatives to mobile checkout

Some customers may still have security concerns about making purchases on mobile, or perhaps they prefer not to go through a fiddly checkout process.

Whatever the reason, providing alternatives means potential sales do not have to be lost.

Alternatives could include:

  • Reserve and collect in store.
  • A phone contact option.
  • Cash on delivery – useful for takeaways.
  • Saving items to a wishlist.

Keep design simple, but not too simple

This is a bit of a paradox, but there is a balance to be struck between making the site simple to use and quick to load, while still retaining as much functionality as possible.

Kiddicare’s mobile site and iPhone app are great examples of this. Users can browse the entire product range, yet navigation is still simple.

Also, Kiddicare provides features such as reviews and videos to provide a richer experience for mobile shoppers:

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Make price comparison easy

Another common use for mobile commerce sites is to allow offline shoppers to compare prices.

There are already dedicated apps for this, such as Sccope, but if retailers can get users doing this within their own apps and sites, then they can benefit from this.

Making it easy to search for items within the app, and using time-saving tools like barcode scanners are one way to make this easier for customers.

Give local information where possible

Retailers should make as much use of location-based tools as they can to appeal to users who are shopping locally and looking for particular products and services.

This includes providing store locators, using mobile AdWords, and offering customers information on stock levels in their nearest shop, as Argos does:

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Look at your mobile search strategy

Mobile search is growing fast, and retailers with mobile sites are best placed to take advantage of this traffic.

Retailers can include search terms related to location in their keyword research and target local searchers with mobile AdWords.

Nice big calls to action

Make your calls to action stand out on the smaller mobile screen by using size and colour effectively. Make it obvious.

Provide shortcuts during checkout

Little things like using the billing address as the delivery address will make the checkout process more palatable for mobile users, and using a postcode lookup tool will save users time spent entering their full address.

Provide collect in store options

Reserve and collect works, and retailers like Halfords and Argos have managed to boost multichannel sales by offering this service.

If this can be incorporated into mobile sites, it is an excellent method of attracting extra sales from offline shoppers, though the time between reservation and collection needs to be kept to a minimum.

Via: http://econsultancy.com/uk/blog/7285-mobile-commerce-25-essential-tips?utm_medium=email&utm_source=topic

eBay hits nearly $2 billion in m-commerce sales worldwide in 2010

Posted: January 6, 2011 in E-Commerce, Industry News, Information communications technology, M-Commerce, Mobile Applications, Mobile Industry News, Mobile Internet, Mobile Technology, Retail
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0

My Comments on the below:

Retailers stand up and take notice!

Posted By ] Bill Siwicki Senior Editor, Mobile Commerce

Throughout 2010, eBay Inc. was predicting its mobile commerce apps and site would generate $1.5 billion in sales worldwide, a big jump from its $900 million in sales in 2009. It has exceeded its expectations, reporting today that customers spent nearly $2 billion using their mobile phones last year. U.S. customers generated $850 million in sales, a 175% leap over 2009 U.S. mobile sales of $309 million.

International sales made up more than half of eBay’s mobile sales in 2010. Outside the U.S., the leading eBay mobile markets are Germany and the U.K., which combined generated nearly one-third of eBay’s mobile sales last year. The fastest growing international eBay mobile markets are Australia and the U.K.

EBay reports that to date its numerous apps for various mobile platforms have been downloaded more than 30 million times.

Users of Apple Inc.’s iPhone continue to lead the way in mobile shopping on eBay. Since its initial release in 2008, eBay’s core iPhone app has been downloaded more than 15 million times and is consistently ranked as a top-three free Lifestyle app in the iTunes store, eBay says. And the company’s RedLaser iPhone app for bar code scanning comparison shopping has been downloaded nearly seven million times, eBay reports.

EBay today is reporting a variety of tidbits, including:

  • A purchase is made every second through eBay’s mobile apps.
  • 13 pieces of clothing, pairs of shoes or accessories are sold every minute through its mobile apps.
  • 94 bids are made every minute via the apps.
  • Three to four Ferraris are purchased every month through its mobile apps.
  • Diamond jewelry, designer handbags and luxury watches topped 2010’s most expensive holiday purchases.

Via:

http://www.internetretailer.com/2011/01/05/ebay-hits-nearly-2-billion-mobile-sales-worldwide-2010

ASOS: mobile site review

Posted: October 28, 2010 in Industry News, Internet, M-Commerce, Mobile Industry News, Mobile Internet, Multichannel Marketing, Retail
Tags: , ,
0

Posted 27 October 2010 09:07am by Graham Charlton

Fashion retailer ASOS launched a mobile site recently, just in time for the Christmas shopping season.

Like M&S and John Lewis, ASOS has opted for a site rather than an app to broaden its reach on mobile, and in response to the number of visits and orders from mobile users.

Homepage and navigation
The site is aimed to cater for all mobile users, and this is reflected in the simplicity of the homepage layout and the navigation options. There are just three options; men, women and outlet, as well as a search box.

Each of the three categories contain plenty of further navigation options. Users can browse by product sub-category, by brand, or by trends. There are further options to refine the results also; by size, colour and brand, though more options may have been useful.

For instance, there are more than jeans in the men’s section, and even when you use a couple of filters, there are still 141, too many to look through on a mobile:

Product pages
The products pages are good though, with four images provided for each product:

Tabs are used to present product information, delivery options and returns policies, while saving space. The product pages do a good job of presenting the products and key information in a limited space.

Checkout process
Users need to either log in or create a new account to enter the checkout process on the ASOS mobile site. Many users may be repeat customers who already have accounts on Asos, but this does make it a little bit harder to attract new customers via mobile.

Once you login or register, the checkout process has been well designed and adapted for mobile users, while links to information on security, returns, FAQs and contact details are all provided at the foot of the page.

Conclusion
The ASOS mobile site is simple and easy to use, and is a good example of how retailers can appeal to mobile shoppers across a range of handsets.

3% of visits to the ASOS site already come from mobile users, while the retailer has taken 23,000 mobile orders. With a site optimised for these users, and a mobile-friendly checkout, these numbers should increase.

Via:

http://econsultancy.com/uk/blog/6763-asos-mobile-site-review?utm_medium=email&utm_source=topic

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