New ways Retailers are unlocking value from Mobile- it isn't how you think!

The mobile revolution has hit retailers like a pile of bricks. Many of us are still reeling, trying to understand how to deal with the 50%, 60%, or even 70% of our web site traffic that is coming from mobile devices. Those of us who have been at this Ecommerce thing for a while consider ourselves to be the original ‘disruptors’ of retail - with this crazy new thing called Ecommerce.  Well, folks, Ecommerce is no longer 'new' - Ecommerce is now almost twenty years old - and we now need to be disrupted (and humbled a bit!) in how we think and act regarding digital and Ecommerce.  Mobile is a major factor in what is forcing us to disrupt our comfortable worlds. 

We just wrote a White Paper about how leading retailers (the NEW disruptors) are getting value from these trends.  You can download a complementary copy and discover what these companies are doing here.

A preview...

To say that mobile has revolutionized shopping — both online and in-store — would be a serious understatement. More than 60% of shopping behavior now starts on a smartphone or tablet (Google, The New Multi-Screen World), more than a trillion dollars in sales can be attributed to mobile’s influence, and upwards of 76% of people interact with brands on mobile at some point in time (Deloitte Digital).

 Wow!

Yet there are many missed opportunities when it comes to maximizing mobile for cross-channel success. Many retailers still haven't revamped their Ecommerce, marketing, or organizational strategies to shift mobile to the forefront, where it belongs. 

Luckily, there are always new disruptors showing us the way.  Some of the savviest have already taken mobile by the reigns with truly impressive results. I led an effort by my firm, Guidance, to reach out to more than a dozen successful brands to find out how they’ve mobilized, so to speak, and the result is in our latest white paper, The Mobile Retailer: How Merchants like Charming Charlie and Pura Vida Put Mobile First, available for download here.

Here are a couple of key takeaways: 

• Rather than seeing mobile as just another purchase funnel and optimizing only for online conversion on mobile devices, the disruptors are treating it holistically, as a direct and powerful influencer of Omni-channel sales. Conversions are important, of course, but the real purpose is providing a handheld hub for brand interaction across multiple channels.  And mobile is driving real revenue gains for retailers when viewed and acted on this way.
• In addition to learning about products and brands, people are increasingly using mobile to create shopping carts, which now serve as a ‘hub’ of shopping intent.  The best merchants are jumping quickly to capitalize on this trend. Closing the loop between mobile and in-store sales has driven real results (incremental sales, increased purchase sizes, etc.) for a number of retailers. 
• One of the most surprising takeaways from the research was how quickly mobile can influence loyalty programs. One of the companies we interviewed added more than a million new sign-ups in just six months after modernizing their mobile platform and creating a built-in loyalty program.
• Mobile is no longer predominantly for the younger set. The same kind of mobile behavior is being exhibited across all demographics and age ranges.
• Mobile-centric thinking and structuring (or re-structuring) your organization around mobile is critical. Several of the retailers we interviewed have taken unconventional steps to align incentives and the org structure to move beyond ‘Desktop only Disorder’ (it is pandemic – we see it everywhere), to being (not just talking about) mobile first.
  
  

Learn much more by checking out the White Paper you can download a complementary copy here.

Also be sure to check out an upcoming Webinar on this topic on July 21st at 10 AM PST.  I'm speaking along with the VP of Ecommerce at Charming Charlie, Katie Kirkpatrick.  We'll be covering the trends we uncovered, as well as how Charming Charlie is taking advantage of these trends to grow their online business at a rapid pace.  Register here!