Plastic Mobile’s Candy Shop Shares the Love at eTail

Plastic Mobile's Candy Shop Visits eTail!

Plastic Mobile and our infamous Candy Shop are sharing our sweet treats and mobile innovations at eTail this week. There to show attendees of the electronic retail conference how mobile is poised to change the face of the storefront, the Candy Shop team is handing out delish sweets and working on changing the way retailers connect wit their customers.

Melody Adhami is also there, chairing the conversation about the rapidly evolving retail space and what’s in store for the future of shopping.

Stay tuned for our follow up on highlights from the conference later this week.

Are you at eTail this week? Tweet us @plasticmobile and let us know what you’re finding interesting – and don’t forget to stop into the Candy Shop to say high and get some Blue Jellies and Berryliciousness!

With the recent launch of the new, re-designed Air Miles mobile application for iPhone and Android devices, and Plastic Mobile headquarters is still buzzing with excitement. While Air Miles collectors are mastering the check-in challenge making it a huge success, we’re finding it tough to keep up with our check-ins. We’re clearly not the only ones addicted to the game and enjoying the improved mobile application!

We hit a major milestone yesterday with Air Miles, claiming the  #1 Lifestyle application and is now throned as the 9th among the Top 25 in the App Store and still climbing! The Facebook App Store page even dedicated a post to us!

Check it out here and be sure to like it and share it with your friends.

The loyalty mobile application, the first of its kind in Canada, allows you to get on-the-go access to AIR MILES Reward Program. Get access to your account balance and information, browse the complete dream rewards catalogue, get up to date in-store bonus offers at sponsor locations through in app LBS, and double your earnings with the Check-in challenge.

This week, the Internet marketing research giant and data specialist, comScore, released its MobiLens service data, revealing key trends in the Canadian smartphone industry. As of September 2011, eight million Canadians owned smartphones – a figure representing 40% of the total mobile market in Canada. The highly anticipated data reveals that the Canadian smartphone adoption rates are increasing aggressively; with a seven per cent increase in just the past six months! One surprising fact to come out of the comScore data was that RIM still leads the pack with a 35.8% market share, albeit, followed closely by Apple’s 30.1%. Also, although Google’s Android is sitting in the number three spot with only 25%, it is important to note that Android has doubled its market share during the last six months; corresponding fluidly with the global surge in Android device purchases within the past few months. (FYI: Android gobbled up more than half of all global smartphones sales in Q3 alone!) The dying fossil Symbian is ranked at the fourth spot, with 4.2%, followed by the new kid on the block, Microsoft (at 3.2%).

In terms of content use, it seems Canadians are using the phones to consume a very wide and diverse range of content and information, and of course to no surprise, the smartphone users are outdoing the feature-phone users in every form and aspect of mobile content consumption, as shown in the chart below.  With such a fast pace of smartphone adoption and such diverse and broad range of smartphone use, the Canadian market is shaping to be the perfect place for businesses to embrace mobile technology and provide the added comfort and value that the Canadian consumers are soon going to automatically expect.  Instead of waiting for mobile access to become a mainstream consumer service before you invest the necessary resources, which you will inevitably have to do, we suggest hopping on the mobile train in its relative infancy, and taking advantage of its current indie and avant-garde profile to garner some serious respect and up your street cred, or as we say in the marketing world “gain some competitive advantage by becoming and early adopter.”  For being so forward thinking.

We found this great infographic from G+ and wanted to share it on our blog as it illustrates the state of mobile commerce pretty well.  The infographic shows the continued pattern of growth with m-commerce and the major impact from NFC.

Attending this convention i hear echos of words here that I hear at all the conferences and conventions I’ve been both speaking at and attending this past year: Mobile, Mobile Mobile! So why the sudden frenzy? …one could say it’s because the fruit is ripe for the picking. Over the past couple days I have listened to many of the top retailers speak to in some cases verbatim what I have in a couple of my keynotes I’ve presented. IT excites me to see this convergence where brands, retailers and agencies share a very similar mindset, for this is the right fodder for the magic to happen. Over the next couple days I will be recapping some sessions and moments at the event, but to start I’ve jotted down a couple quotes that I found to be on point:

“Technology is secondary to the customer experience”
Phil Mckoy, Target

“Mobile is about communication – a means of making business better”
Andrew Koven, Steve Maden

“Mobile is not just a way to give out coupons…the differentiator for brands and retailers will be apps… mobile web will still need to be part of the mix similar to the dot com”
Pratik Pal, Tata Consultancy

“Coupons are a dangerous drug, they can erode your customer and your product”
Jamey Maki, Golfsmith

Although many companies believe mobile commerce is still blossoming, mobile users’ increased adaptation to smartphones should be an emergency awakening call for businesses. Retailers should start outlining the right strategy for themselves: view the mobile space as an opportunity to influence consumers’ buying decisions and learn how to take advantage of the opportunity.

That’s okay. We’ve put together a package that will help solve all your M-commerce needs!

Dear Retailers,

As your welcome package to the mobile tech world, we’ve summed up the 10 basic MUSTS you need to know before implementing M-commerce as your survival guide. We wish you good luck on your mobile journey & we are sure it’ll be an interesting, constantly evolving, and highly competitive one.

Your neighbourhood friendly mobile experts,                      

Plastic Mobile

Top 10 Musts:

1. Know who your consumers are, how you should reach them, and how, when & why they use their mobile devices.
2. Know what you want to achieve through mobile commerce. Have an objective – yes, we are aware of how simple that sounds, and yet how daunting the task really is.
3. Pay attention to security concerns. Consumers are still wary about purchasing online which makes them even more resistant to this medium. Instill confidence in your users by developing a secure application form a reliable source, like us. We’re okay with shameless self-promotion.
4. Allow for quick-fill capabilities during the checkout process to let users rapidly enter billing and shipping information.
5. Make sure your site is accessible via any mobile device, as some consumers may start with their mobile browsers, rather than an application.
6. Offer Mobile-based loyalty programs & rewards. Consumers like incentives, especially when you’re trying to get them to use a new platform.
7. Ensure that your mobile applications have the ability to keep up with the changing capabilities of each device. Keeping up to date is key in this space.
8. Provide a quick, seamless M-commerce experience. Shoppers expect the experience to be seamless and simple. If you create a good user experience, you’ll get repeat visits and sales.
9. Make sure the mobile commerce system configures well with the existing systems. learn the lessons of mobile commerce from others who did it right or wrong.
10. Have a clear understanding of differences between m-commerce and e-commerce. For more information go to our post on e-commerce VS. m-commerce.

For this holiday season, in-store purchases and e-commerce have found a fierce competitor in the form of a small gadget, that we all are addicted to, our mobile phones!

First, you had to go to them, then they came to you, on your desktop, and now, closer than ever, they are in your palm; retailers, anytime, anywhere!

All surveys show that 2010 will be the first holiday season where mobile shopping will make a huge impact on sales in US.  It’ll be a year to remember; a year to learn from, and it’ll be the year that changed the future of commerce.  Mobile shopping is going to make a big hit in commerce this holiday season, it’ll definitely became very important in Canada as it constantly adds value for consumers in their shopping practices.

Consumers today are being spoiled with push updates and information directly to their mobile devices.  The conveniences offered at the touch of their fingers is spreading faster than expected and now consumer expectations from retailers have gone up with the practice and freedom of buying products whenever and wherever they want. Mobile shopping is the next big thing.

Consumers who?

Consumers riding a bus, sitting in a waiting room, working in the office, or between classes at school, they all have two things in common; a mobile phone which is no longer just a communication device, and great expectations from retailers to respond to this fast growing new shopping channel, Mobile !  Same way that e-commerce changed holiday shopping for good, Mobile shopping will revolutionize the holiday shopping for ever.

More than half of US consumers are planning to use mobile devices for holiday shopping this year, according to Mobile Marketing Association and Luth Research’s survey. Retailers can now interact with consumers, in this case “ Mobile holiday shoppers” category, directly through their mobile phone at anytime. Sooner or later all retailers, both in Canada & US have to bring their brands to consumers’ palms in order to maintain their position in this competitive market.

Evolution of shopping

Each & everyday consumers use their mobile phones more and more for purchasing products; therefore, the number of “Mobile holiday shoppers” will increase and smart retailers should take advantage of this trend going into the 2010 holiday season. Especially with current economy, companies, which send out SMS’s that contain discounts, promotions, free shipping, and other forms of loyalty programs, will gain higher transaction rates that will lead to more revenues this year.

Consumers use their mobile devices to research, find out about new arrivals, discounts, and promotions, see the catalogs, and find out a store’s location. Not only is everything made easy for them via mobile shopping, but also it allows consumers to make more informed purchase decisions.

What the heck caused this high number of mobile transactions?

According to Deloitte’s 25th annual holiday survey, Shoppers 18-29 are going to form a significant portion of mobile usage this holiday season, with 37 percent planning to use their mobile phones during the shopping process.  “The devices become capable of even more functionality, mobile will become even more mainstream,” said Alison Paul, vice chairman and retail sector leader at Deloitte, New York.

Two major factors have driven this high number: adoption and sophistication. People adapt to Smartphones more & more with each new device introduced to the market.  Another important factor is the increase in sophistication and features on these smartphones that make mobile shopping less painless.

Make it a great experience!

• Push out gift ideas to the mobile users
• Simplify the shopping experience
• Have a one-click checkout process
• Allow for order tracking
• Remain consistent across channels in terms of promotions from online to mobile, and store to mobile device

Attention retailers!

1. In both delivery models for mobile commerce, mobile Web and mobile applications, product catalog, pricing, promotions and inventory must be consistent and updated in real-time due to selling volume.
2. Don’t just focus on revenue earned by mobile shopping this holiday; mobile medium has other capabilities too. It influences purchasing heavily through other channels such as in-store transactions. The key is how to inform consumers of stores locations, promotions, and discount’s.
3. As of this holiday season, the challenge for retailers both in US & Canada will be how to either embrace or try to hold off the mobile shopping trend.  Mobile shopping will become a common consumer practice and consumer practices once learned, become very hard to change. Retailers must ensure they provide their customers with the right experience right out of the door.
   

What now?

As it has been predicted by experts in US this year, mobile will be the break away channel to reach consumers for the holiday shopping season. As Canada always follows in the footsteps of the US, retailers better start planning & investing in a sound mobile strategy, since we are clearly headed in that direction. Retailers should look at mobile as a great new medium for their sales, advertising and marketing & ensure they benefit from early entrance into the arena.

It is essential to build a strong mobile strategy for 2011 because 2010 holiday season will be remembered as the turning point for consumer acceptance of mobile as a viable shopping outlet.