March 1, 2016
What’s holding back smartphone shopping?
By
Through a special arrangement, what follows is a summary of an article from Retail Dive, an e-newsletter and website providing a 60-second bird’s eye view of the latest retail news and trends.
According to a Forrester Research report from October 2015, one-third of retailers’ web traffic was expected to come from phones in 2015 but only 11 percent of sales. By 2020, phones were expected to only generate 15 percent of e-commerce sales.
Why are retailers struggling with m-commerce? Some of it has to do with how users interact with their phones.
“In the early phases of mobile, [using a phone] was more of a found-time activity,” says Ryan D. Matzner, director of Fueled, a digital agency. “It was something to do while you were waiting in line.”
This kind of learned interaction has created certain built-in issues for m-commerce that don’t exist with web commerce. “On mobile, things load slowly, and the experience is second-rate and users are less patient,” he says.
While larger phone screens are helping, search and image placement on smartphones are often clumsy and shopping apps remain prone to crashing. Mobile apps also have to be scalable as new features like mobile pay arrive. From a targeting standpoint, e-mails need to be shorter and contain fewer products to make messages easier to read, load and digest on a phone.
“Recognize that mobile and desktop aren’t the same,” says Mr. Matzner. “On mobile, you have push notifications. When you’re on desktop, you’re not getting push from Tinder, text messages, all fluttering through your screen. On desktop it’s harder to get distracted. But on mobile, people leave your app open and forget to come back. But we can work with that. We can send a push notification that says, ‘Hey! Someone put something in the cart and left it there for 30 minutes!’ or ‘Hey! Something’s on sale!’”
Bluetooth beacons will further help mobile devices anticipate shopping needs.
“You’re going to have deep linking as part of the game, too,” adds Mr. Matzner. “Like, being able to go from social media to a particular part of an app. And searchability. You’ll be able to search within apps more easily and more frequently.”
Discussion Questions
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS: What are the biggest issues holding back shopping on smartphones? What adjustments will have to be made for smartphone shopping to at least be on par with laptop shopping?
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The two biggest issues holding back mobile purchasing are retail websites that are not optimized for mobile phone screens and website search that is cumbersome, inaccurate and slow. Mobile should be treated as a totally different animal. Due to screen size it needs to be quick and accurate, presenting consumers with a fast, efficient way to find what they are looking for, buy it and check out.
There seems to be an implicit assumption that mobile shopping should be on a par with laptop/desktop shopping. I’m not sure why that assumption exists, at least in developed countries where the penetration of computing devices is so high (compared to a lot of third-world countries, where they’ve leapfrogged to mobile). Do shoppers actually have the expectation that the two devices should be the same? Or are we telling them it should be and then leaving everyone disappointed when a 4″ screen doesn’t give you the same experience as a 17″ monitor?
As indicated in the article, smartphones are probably used more for “must-do” things, like making a phone call, finding a place to eat, finding an address and getting directions, etc. Shopping is more of a “found-time” activity. People waiting to be served at the DMV or waiting at a doctor’s office might find the time to shop from their smartphone, but then that would be a fraction of the time compared to desktop shopping. Having said all that, there may be generational behaviors that are different. Younger generations may eventually do everything on their smartphones, whereas older ones may prefer the comfort of their own chair and their desktop computer (or iPad) to go shopping online.
It’s all about the screen experience. Bigger is better, especially for Boomer eyes! (hate to admit that, but it’s true).
And not many retailers have solved for mobile-ready experiences. This void will be really noticeable as Generation Z begins to have more direct spending power. It may be years before the legacy retailers catch up to the more nimble newer retailers that can focus on mobile.
The big question for many retailers becomes: how late is too late?
I think Max is right on the money as far as the design of shopping sites is concerned. From personal experience, far too many e-commerce sites are poorly adapted for the small screen in terms of ease of navigation and data entry. The lingering concern about data breaches is another issue holding consumers back, although some one-touch apps like Uber are changing most shoppers’ mindsets.
This certainly echoes the conversation on the mobile form factor, but that aside, once you get past reading emails, people tend to carry on conversations through their mobile devices, even if it’s not using voice, but texting or posting to social sites. After the proverbial “would you like a deal to buy something I think you may be interested in (with a not great probability of being right)” there’s not a lot of conversation left for the retailer to have. All the scientific, predictive and targeted offer capabilities aside, I don’t think retailers have figured out how not to be pests, or figured out the differences between valid conversation and irritating spam.
Smartphone shopping just isn’t as easy. Screen size, site design and speed all contribute to the added hassle of transacting on a smartphone. The experience just doesn’t need to be mobile optimized but redesigned. The one area of promise is ease of paying using Apple Pay or others. Nothing says easy like putting your thumbprint down to pay. No entering in all that info.
The sites/apps that get it right already see much higher than 15 percent of sales coming in from mobile. It’s imperative that site owners get out in front of the curve instead of lagging behind. The slowest prey always gets eaten first.
Still simple answers — the size of the shopping work-space and the design of the user interface and security. The phone is good for research, calling or receiving calls, music, simple texting and photo sharing. It has a core purpose. If I were a retailer I would push to have shoppers tag items that they want to review later and trust their phone for in-store research at my stores. The wish list plan. They can use the PC or tablet to build up their wish list, or they can use their phone. When they enter my store their wish list is fresh and also a copy goes to the closest store associate, along with the person’s picture. The associate helps them find their wishes. Great tool for SELLING just not closing the sale.
Get off the news craze and use retail logic for smartphones. They are a selling tool not a final transaction execution device.
Convenience is both the advantage as well as the obstacle for m-commerce. Having your phone with you wherever you go is convenient if you want to shop. However, a PC is almost always more convenient to navigate the retailer’s website. As phones get more intuitive and retailer websites get more mobile-optimized, m-commerce will continue to grow. This is only a matter of time. Websites are too inconsistent to rely solely upon mobile to pull off the shopping task.
We should redefine the question: “How do shoppers use their smartphones?” It’s not just about mobile commerce, it’s about using smartphones to shop physical stores as well. The smartphone is the ultimate tool to combine the benefits of e-commerce (personalization and convenience) with physical (sensory, immediacy and availability). Smartphones are used for mobile and physical commerce.
If there is an urgent purchase that can’t conveniently be made via desk/tablet then the phone provides a solution. Otherwise, consumers select the preferred device. Shoppers select the logical, efficient way to accomplish a task. A person can drive a nail with a shoe if necessary. But it’s easier with a hammer.
What’s to say anything is “holding back” mobile? Maybe 15 percent (or whatever) is just the limit of what mobile will be.
I think the article pretty well sums up the downside issues with mobile shopping. Desktop shopping simply allows better keyboard mobility, allows multiple screens to be open simultaneously for product and price comparison purposes, intuitively “feels” safer for executing monetary transactions and affords greater opportunity to enlarge and enhance photos to see details. I agree with those who wonder if transactions using our current generation mobile devices will ever much exceed 15 percent.
I wouldn’t say there is anything holding back mobile commerce. It is a bit of a context problem. People are in the e-shopping mode when they sit at a laptop. Smartphones don’t really have a shopping context — it is stores that offer the shopping context.
The real wave of opportunity for smartphones has to be the addition of wearables. Smartphones end up inside people’s pockets or bags while they are shopping and offer little chance of interaction. Seldom do you see the “retail tech demo” video version of shoppers walking around a store with their mobile phone guiding them. With wrist wearables all of the power of that smartphone can be shared at arms reach — without having to physically unearth your smartphone.
The always-on, in-your-pocket-24/7 nature of phones make them an attractive option for retailers looking to increase sales. Most of the current conversation around mobile revolves around optimization. While maximizing customer experience is a no-brainer, we need to take a step back and look at mobile devices as a way to support the sale, not necessarily the place to close it. Mobile phones are the best place to offer on-the-spot customer support, wish list creation and customized offers that increase the likelihood of a future sale.
In the very near future, proximity-based strategies will merge the online and in-store shopping experience in amazing ways. Imagine stopping by your favorite retail store. Before walking through the door, the manager greets you by name, discusses the product you researched earlier on the Internet and shows you some additional products you might be interested in. That’ll make mobile a game changer.
The competition’s dependency on the use of smartphones to confirm competitive pricing for their own lowest price guarantees is a very large portion of site visits to “check out” where you must go to include shipping costs. Second to that might be competitive web designers looking to learn what’s going on out there. And then you must take into account competitive pricing searches. This mess accounts for well over 50 percent of all site visits that the real IT managers will attest to when under close scrutiny for the marketing facts.
What you have left is the 21st century shopper that seems very willing to wear themselves out in search for the perfect deal. Isn’t it amazing how much time and money is spent to save an unrecoverable amount of money? Funnier than that is how much we spend to keep ourselves and the competition informed about one another’s business. And then there is the little problem of how dysfunctional the site software is for smartphone use causing the consumer to leave in frustration. Other than that all is well.
” … ONLY generate 11 percent … ” First of all this may be a gross underestimate, and second it is a huge share by ONLY a few merchants who have optimized mobile sites or apps. This landscape is changing fast. Any retailer without specific plans for a really simple and effective mobile buy site within months is probably going to fall by the wayside in the great race to capture conversions to online and mobile as a part of that. Fasten your seat belts.
One interesting note is that you mentioned:
“On mobile, you have push notifications. When you’re on desktop, you’re not getting push from Tinder, text messages, all … “
Well push notifications actually made their way to desktop in the past couple years. Safari was the first to release them in late 2013 but due to low browser web traffic market share it wasn’t commonly seen. Chrome launched support in 2015 and Firefox in 2016. Now over 80 percent of desktop web traffic supports push notifications (and 40 percent of mobile web)!
Might be interesting to see how that changes the game!