Insights of an Intern: The Rising Tide of Mobile Retail

For my inaugural post as the resident Plastic Mobile intern, I’d like to focus on the eTail event we attended last week where I learned a number of interesting facts and stats about m-commerce.

First, and this one made my jaw-drop, a stat reported in late april by the eTailing Group in their annual merchant study, Making the Right Choices in a Connected World: Customer Experience Escalation: 85 percent of merchants say mobile commerce is a focus in 2012, up from 68 percent in 2011.

With nearly four out of five respondents suggesting that m-commerce is in their strategies, the mobile retail arena is about to get a lot more competitive. With so many merchants now simultaneously making the move to mobile, they will have to quickly develop effective mobile strategies that will also help engage their customers and bring their brands into the new world of mobile retail. I for one hope that the need for speed won’t hinder the need for quality initiatives.

Second, the Interactive Bureau reports in their study, Mobile Phone Shopping Diaries May 2012, that 73 percent of consumers say they have used their mobile phones in a store and that 40 percent of respondents said they want mobile ads to allow them to browse the brand’s broader product offering. This is interesting because it suggests that retailers can look to in-store mobile solutions and other alternatives to just mobile websites.

For instance, earlier this month Sephora went through a complete Digital Makeover. Their new and exciting cross-channel initiative includes a new mobile app with improved UX, sharper search capabilities, m-commerce enabled shopping and all the social network bells and whistles. Some of Sephora’s stores are seeing iOS devices being launched in-store to allow sales agents to speed up checkout times with mobile POSs. Other stores are implementing in-store iPads that provide extensive product information, style tips that customers can send to themselves via email and, of course, more social media integration.

There are definitely other brands implementing some fantastic m-commerce initiatives, but Sephora stood out to me as a leader because of the grand scale and quality of this mobile initiative.

Last, a recent study by Juniper Research estimates that mobile transaction volume will grow to $670 billion by 2015! I can’t wait to see which brands will follow Sephora’s fantastic example and make that prediction a reality.

So there you have it, a few interesting m-commerce stats and one very extensive and exciting new initiative to enhance consumers retail experiences.

Do you have your own mobile insights or thoughts on other great initiatives? Tweet us at @plasticmobile and let us know!

For more recent information on m-commerce, and to learn about the initiatives of other brands, I recommend some of the following articles:

Canada leads world in digital wallet tech, so what’s the holdup?
Key Traits of Mobile Commerce Leadership
The Future of Shopping is Mobile

eMarketer's Piece on our Mobile Wealth Study

We’ve been busier than usual here at Plastic Mobile (is that even possible?), with a whirlwind of events and releases. In the past few months,we have published the results of our highly anticipated Mobile Wealth Study in partnership with New York based Luxury Institute, participated in the Mobile Shopping Summit in San Diego, released the Forrester Research Pizza Pizza case study and headed back to Toronto to attend eTail Canada – we’re glad our media pals have been able to keep up!

Our Mobile Wealth Study has been particularly popular, catching the attention of both bloggers and major national publications. When we partnered with Luxury Institute to learn more about how wealthy consumers are using their mobile devices and luxury brand applications, we had no idea the results would ignite such widespread conversation. Check out what people are saying below.

Mobile Wealth Study in the News:

GigaOm, http://gigaom.com/mobile/redefining-luxury-for-a-mobile-world/

USA Today, http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/story/2012-04-15/cnbc-luxury-retailers-apps/54262362/1

Wall Street Journal, http://blogs.wsj.com/wealth/2012/04/03/wealthy-smartphone-users-like-angry-birds-and-facebook/

Fox Business, http://www.foxbusiness.com/personal-finance/2012/04/05/make-purchases-from-our-iphones-wed-rather-not-say-wealthy/

eMarketer, http://www.emarketer.com/Mobile/Article.aspx?R=1009033

Luxury Daily, http://www.luxurydaily.com/affluent-consumers-favor-brands-with-apps-study/

Mobile Marketing Magazine, http://m.mobilemarketingmagazine.com/mobilemarketing/i/article/targeting-rich-theres-app

Tech Vibes, http://www.techvibes.com/blog/wealthy-consumers-favour-luxury-brands-that-go-mobile-canadian-startup-discovers-2012-04-24