Mobile Commerce Minute

Two great studies released last week - one from Unbound Commerce and the other from BrandingBrand - showcase the insane year-over-year growth of mobile commerce. In case you missed them, Chuck summarizes the high-level findings here in less than 2 minutes. The Coles notes version? Mobile is killing it. The long version? Mobile is killing it. Watch this.

We all know that retail has taken a licking as a result of the mobile revolution. It has been the punching bag for upstarts and analysts, it has been chided in all media, it has become subservient to the almighty consumer, it has quite simply lost its mojo. For every glimmer of hope that the retail industry has caught on, has embraced its new lord, has turned a corner, reality hits home time and again. A new study by Boston Retail Partners reiterates this cycle and shows retailers are still in a state of denial. Chuck summarizes here but to give you a quick snapshot, of the retailers surveyed, only 3% can identify the mobile shopper when they walk in their store...we are all still anonymous - not by accident but by negligence.

Grocery stores are important to us. They are often a part of our neighbourhoods. We visit them regularly and often. We are loyal. The thing is that we also want from our grocery stores the same things we want from the other retailers we frequent. Grocery stores have an incredible opportunity because of the nature of their business but they cannot rest and let the mobile opportunity pass them by. That would be catastrophic to their business. This latest PWC study shows what we want as consumers from our grocery stores. Chuck highlights some of the key findings in 2 minutes here.

Two incredible studies (one by Euclid, the other by BrandingBrand) focus on the influence mobile is having on the shopping experience. They also shine a light on possibly the biggest challenge for retailers: "Dark retail." Similar to the "dark web" - the private sharing and linking of websites and data that can't be measured by traditional analytics, Dark Retail encompasses the influences that affect the consumer's path to purchase that cannot be measured. The path to purchase has never been a straight line but smartphones and other connected devices have really increased the complexity for retailers. At the same time, they have given consumers full control on where, when and with whom they do business with.

Two of augmented reality's household names are now one. When Blippar acquired Layar it was two fierce competitors coming together under one roof. Is this a sign of a market that is taking longer than anticipated to emerge or is this a sign of a market that may never emerge. Chuck offers his thoughts on what this means to the industry.

In a first on many levels, famed high-end shopping mecca Regent Street in London has had 180 beacons installed in the entrances of all the shops that line the street. The app, created by Autograph, allows consumers to customize the types of shops that can reach out to them through the setup. It is one of the first massive controlled rollouts of the beacon technology - done by the Regent Street Partnership under The Crown Estate. It is early but this is a project that all retailers should be watching very closely.

There is a subtle difference between selling to consumers and helping them to buy from you. One may push customers out the door empty-handed (and perhaps to a competitive website), the other may just make a more loyal customer that would come back again and again and again. The question is how to do this in a way that really does help people when they are in-store trying to make up their mind and do it through mobile as the central platform.

 

An innovative in-store app created by Impiger Mobile - on the Genband platform -  for Toy Genius may just have the solution. You'll have to watch the episode to catch a glimpse.

What if I told you that email is still a valuable marketing tool - especially for mobile? Well, it is. According to a recent and exhaustive report on email marketing by Knotice, mobile is the termination point for most emails and a solid email marketing strategy for retailers is essential in order to connect with customers. Email should be used in conjunction with other marketing tactics to be effective but you can't ignore how and when people use it - which, as with everything else, is on the go.

Mobile payments are taking off - we know this - but it isn't the amount that is staggering yet, it is the year over year growth. Most of the planet hasn't even done a transaction yet so we are in the early years. Similar to a batting average in April, percentages are bound to stabilize but right now growth in mobile payments is a vertical line with nothing to slow it down.

 

A new study by Juniper illustrates this very clearly with a 40% jump in mobile payments from last year. It is still early, and doesn't come near the $5+ trillion spent on credit cards annually but it is only a matter of time

A new study from Affiliate Window shows the growth of the sales coming from mobile. This shouldn't come as a shock to anyone who has watched any of our episodes. This should be used as ammunition as you are sitting around a table discussing whether you ought to invest more in mobile. With an average purchase of over $120 per transaction and mobile moving 30% of sales from the respondents I think the answer is clear...When it comes to mobile, more isn't just one option, it is THE option.